Rebuilding your identity in recovery can be daunting - here I share some tips that helped me find the old and new me in recovery

Charlotte shares her experience of recovery and how it's enabled her to live more healthily, authentically & happily

I'd never considered that I had an eating disorder, but the way I was treated by my GP was how I ended up getting treatment.

The natural world has taught me about transience, how to appreciate each delicate thread of life’s vibrant tapestry.

The theme of this week is ‘kindness’. That means, we can all be kind for 7 days, and then get back to being cruel, nasty and inconsiderate.

This is an incredibly challenging and stressful time and it may not feel like it right now, but you will look back on these few weeks and months and you’ll be so proud of yourself for getting through this.

Here is part two of how your pets supported you through your recovery.

I am sharing my story in the hope that others may find it relatable or helpful to their own recovery journeys.

This is my story to show you there is hope. You’re not alone.

What a year 2020 has been in general for everyone – it was a year no one ever could have imagined, from panic buying, toilet roll shortages, lockdowns and restrictions. Yet for so many, including me, the battle against an eating disorder continued.

Whatever this Christmas season is like for you, I want to give you hope for the Christmas future. I can't tell you that recovery is linear, or that five years on I don't still have wobbles and moments of doubt. But I can say that all of my efforts, all of the hard work and fear that has gone into my recovery has been worth it.

In the run-up to Christmas, there is a lot to juggle. The gifts we need to buy, the plans we have to make to see loved ones, how we might manage disruptions to our routine - all of these things can be difficult to handle at once.

We might not be able to change the prevalence of eating disorders overnight, but we can improve the system that treats them.

Exam results certainly don’t define you. And exam results that were downgraded according to a dubious algorithm definitely don’t.

I was hugely unhappy and suffering with mental health issues all throughout my teens. In a very dramatic and extreme way, I learned the very hard lesson that I was not able to reach my full potential unless I started to accept and take care of myself.

Self-isolation is hard for everyone right now; everyone with an eating disorder is aware that there is pressure on every single person’s mental health.

Be kind to yourself and give yourself a break – worrying and feeling guilty about food, exercise and weight gain is not essential and will make an already difficult and anxiety-ridden period worse.

We asked some of our Ambassadors to consider times when they’d dealt with similar situations to what people with eating disorders may be experiencing with coronavirus.

Covid-19 is doing strange things to my perception, my lungs, my mind. And strangely, I am also thinking… “Phew, I’m glad I’ve been locked up before!”

I have also been frustrated with myself for making what I thought was ‘little’ progress in my recovery. However, I now realise that I need to stop criticising myself, and instead be proud of where I am today.