Feeling Behind in Life Because of an Eating Disorder
Eating disorders can make you feel isolated in countless different ways. Often overlooked is the feeling of falling behind in life due to your struggles with mental health. You are not alone in this. When you feel far behind those around you, remember that you cannot live your life in constant comparison to others.
By: Samreen Khan
Your eating disorder’s impact extends far beyond the years you spend in its grasp. You may have had valuable memories and experiences eclipsed by the overbearing presence of an eating disorder. You may feel you have missed out on life’s important milestones because of your mental health struggles. Watching friends and family move forward can feel isolating. You may still feel hindered by your eating disorder, whether early or later in life.
These feelings of isolation can persist well into recovery. Even as you reconstruct your relationship with yourself and reclaim your life, you may feel like you are still trying to catch up. This is entirely understandable – although technically, you may have been living life at the same pace as your peers, a significant portion of your energy was spent on your eating disorder.
But ultimately, no human experience can be defined by a number, an age, or a date. Everyone grows at their own pace, and everyone’s life should take place at its own rate. Your mental illness may have inhibited your experiences, but this does not mean that you are less capable, intelligent, or worthy than those around you. The struggles that you have had to endure are different from your peers, so your progress should not be compared to theirs. Everyone’s journey is different. There is no right or wrong way to move through life. The comparison does no one any good.
Life moves at a swift pace nowadays. Things like social media put pressure on you to “live your best life” as young as possible; education has become far more competitive, and the pressures of life can make you feel like your time is running out. But there is nothing wrong with slowing down and reaching milestones at your own pace. You only live this life once – you do not need to rush through it.
You are never too old to start living again. Your childhood, adolescence, or even adulthood may never be the same as anyone else’s, as an eating disorder will leave a mark. But it was a life you grew from and lived through. That is worth celebrating. Though others around you may be in different stages of life, at the end of the day, this is your life to fulfill as you wish. You fought for this life; your eating disorder could not take it away. You define the pace at which you go through this world. It does not make you any less worthy of a person to grow at a different rate than anybody else.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating and body image issues. In addition to our full-time Day Treatment Program and Weeknight Intensive Outpatient Program, we offer high-quality programming, nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, and various other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
Our admissions team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about our programs and services. Book a free consultation call with our admissions team below, or read more about our philosophy here.
This post was written by BALANCE Blog Contributor, Samreen Khan (she/her/he/him).
Samreen is a high school graduate with an ardent drive to de-stigmatize mental illness and eating disorders. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she experienced the harmful effects of “fitspo” culture firsthand for most of her childhood. Throughout her own recovery journey, she became passionate about deconstructing diet culture and raising awareness about eating disorders in her everyday life. Samreen began extending her own ideology of intuitive eating and body neutrality to others by publishing her own writing online when she was fourteen, and has since received several awards for her prose and poetry. She has conducted research on the biological and evolutionary implications of familial mental illness, and is currently taking college-level Sociology and Psychology courses with hopes to delve further into the social and cultural constructs that bolster disordered eating, especially within marginalized communities. She’s grateful for the opportunity to combine two of her strongest passions — writing and mental health — by working with BALANCE!