Living with PTSD

PTSD is not often what young adults and teens think of when you say the words 'mental illness.' More often they'll jump to Depression and Anxiety. I know, personally, I always associated PTSD with survivors of war and never realised that a young woman in Australia could experience it. That was until I felt the steering wheel go through my chest every day even after my fractured sternum had healed. While mental illness never discriminates, it is always personalised; no person experiences any...

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The Meaning Behind the Paper Crane

During my most recent admission to an eating disorder unit, I met a nurse who taught me how to make paper cranes. What started as a crazy, intense attempt at a piece of dinosaur origami involving a 25 minute you-tube tutorial and 5 pages of instructions from a massive booklet full of weird technical terms such as blintzing, triangulation and pythagorean stretching, we decided to call it quits and stick to something a little bit easier, the classic paper crane. After a solid 3 hours of practice,...

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Stereotypes

That the only types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosaAlthough these are two of the more widely known types of eating disorders, there are so many more including…1. Binge Eating Disorder (BED) which involves recurring episodes of binge eating followed by high periods of distress however; a person won’t indulge in compensatory behaviours.2. Pica which is characterised by an appetite for substances with no nutritional value such as paper, hair, paint, glass or metal.3....

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Things I wish I knew before I went Inpatient

In every facility you go to, you will get the good and the bad. Nurses who have the ability to change your life, as well as nurses who will make you question how they ever got their degree. You will come across medical professionals who are completely lacking in their knowledge of psychiatric conditions such as nutty professors who will compare your illness to a “crazy religion”. Depending on the illness and the type of clinicians treating you, it’s likely that no one will believe a word you...

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Unhelpful comments to someone with an Eating Disorder

"You've gained so much weight, you look so much healthier"  The most common and most hurtful comment. Although this is usually intended to be a compliment, it's usually twisted into the complete opposite. This comment only fuels the voice criticizing the sufferer for gaining weight and draws attention directly to the individuals body image. "Wow, you're so disciplined, i wish i had that kind of self control" or "I wish i could lose weight like...

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