eating

The second week of February, well from the 11^th to today, the 17^th of February it has been the annual Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Every year i am blown away by the amount of support and awareness raising that goes on during this week, especially by Beat the eating disorders charity.

And this year was no different with both their “Sock it to Eating Disorders” and “Everybody knows somebody” campaigns which both received a lot of high profile support and attention.

Some things i absolutely must mention..

My wonderful friend and London VIR for YoungMinds Amy-Louise posted this inspirational video. Amy-Louise reached out to the online community and asked them to send her their videos and the result is both heartwarming and heart breaking in equal measures.

You can also visit her blog and Youtube channel to see more of the wonderful work that she does.

There were also some amazing blogs this week on YoungMinds website from young people and their families on the themes of Eating Disorders and Recovery. Please remember that all blogs of this nature can be triggering if you are struggling and should be watched only if you are feeling up to it.

And i know this is a bit of a selfish and silly one but i was incredibly excited that i was re-tweeted by Stephen Fry even if it did involve airing his dirty laundry!:

Stephen Fry retweets WellHappy!

There was also a groundbreaking debate on Eating Disorders held in Parliament on Friday and chaired by Caroline Noakes MP, Head of the APPG on Body Image and a vocal campaigner for change and awareness. I have started talking to her over Twitter and am hoping to meet with her soon.

I will be posting more specifically about this debate in a blog coming soon. Watch this space!

Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2012 Roundup

*WARNING* Some of these posts may potentially be a bit triggering due to their subject matter. Please make sure that you are safe while reading.

Last week was Eating Disorder Awareness Week so ithought i would share with you all some of the fantastic blogs and news stories that i’ve seen in case you’ve missed any of them. There has once again been such an amazing outpouring of support, knowledge and activism from all over the world from service users, professionals and other people, such as parents, who have been affected by eating disorders.

I’m going to focus mainly on the work that Beat and their ambassadors have done because they do so much to raise the profile of eating disorders in this country and do have a strong focus on young people so i thought it might be more relevant for readers here at the VIK site. Their theme for this year’s events has been:

“Breaking the Silence”.

http://www.b-eat.co.uk/
So firstly Beat as an organisation have put out a lot of information and resources this week as well as holding a Beat parade in London on Saturday 25th February.

Some of their ambassadors have also been talking about EDs including Olivia talking to Real Radio here:

http://www.realradioyorkshire.co.uk/news-sport/no-more-silence-over-eating-disorders/m63zrpll/

Ilona Burton, one of my personal favourite bloggers has written a series of articles this week on the subject too:

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/20/break-the-silence-beat-eating-disorders/

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/21/%E2%80%9Ci-think-i-have-an-eating-disorder%E2%80%9D/

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/22/access-denied-eating-disorder-treatments/

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/23/eating-disorders-the-blame-game/

Splash FM also covered the subject, talking to a therapist who says that GPs often do not know enough about eating disorders and so fail to pick up on patients who are ill:

http://www.splashfm.com/splashstory.asp?id=4796

And also, just so you know the UK’s EDAW is over but our American counterpart’s is still in full swing. For more information on this visit NEDAs website:

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

First published 1st March 2012:

http://www.vik.org.uk/2012/03/01/edaw12-roundup/