Is this a story that you will resonate with? Can hearing the story of someone going through and recovering from an eating disorder lend you some strength and inspiration to overcome your own? What can you learn from people that share their stories? In this podcast episode, Dr. Cristina Castagnini speaks with Alexis about her life after an eating disorder.

IN THIS PODCAST

  • In the beginning
  • Seeking treatment
  • There is a way out of it

In the beginning

Alexis speaks about her recovery from an eating disorder and remembers that it started to gain momentum around the time she hit puberty. Over the course of many years, the eating disorder habits slowly worsened, until she had developed bulimia. She started to separate from her family and friends to stay away from events with food and to spend a lot more time in the gym. All of these behaviors contributed to the shame that she felt towards her body.

Seeking treatment

In the beginning, Alexis was ambivalent about seeking therapy but through encouragement from family and friends, she started seeing a therapist. Although, many years went by without her experiencing any real change or help:
For the first couple years of treatment I wasn’t ready or I wasn’t willing to make any changes, so it became a pattern of something I was doing but not something that was actually helping me at the time because I wasn’t willing to let it help me. (Alexis)
It got to a point where she realized that if she did not make a meaningful change soon, the eating disorder may have taken her life.

There is a way out of it

You do not need to be ‘sick enough’ before seeking treatment. It is possible to recover and you can do more for yourself than you think you can. You can trust your care team and the people that love you, despite your eating disorder. You are able to move through the bumps on the road along the way when they come up, and trust that you are strong enough to get to the other side.

USEFUL LINKS

MEET DR. CRISTINA CASTAGNINI

I am a licensed Psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist. While I may have over 20 years of clinical experience, what I also have is the experience of having been a patient who had an eating disorder as well. One thing that I never had during all of my treatment was someone who could look me in the eye and honestly say to me "hey, I've been there. I understand". Going through treatment for an eating disorder is one of the hardest and scariest things to do. I remember being asked to do things that scared me. Things I now know ultimately helped me to get better. But, at the time, I had serious doubts and fears about it. If even one of my providers had been able to tell me "I know it's scary, but I had to go through that part too. Here's what will probably happen...." then perhaps I would not have gone in and out of treatment so many times. My own experience ultimately led me to specialize in treating eating disorders. I wanted to be the therapist I never had; the one who "got it". I will be giving you my perspective and information as an expert and clinician who has been treating patients for over 2 decades. But don't just take my word for it...keep listening to hear the truly informative insights and knowledge guest experts have to share. I am so happy you are here!

THANKS FOR LISTENING

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