It was the summer of 2011 and I had just finished my first year of college. The year had been full of ups and downs—one of the ups being that I was the skinniest I had ever been, and the down being that I was trapped in the midst of an eating disorder I wasn’t aware I had yet. It wasn’t until I got home for summer break that I thought: How can I live the rest of my life like this? How did I get here? What went so wrong?
At least 20 million women and 10 million men in the United States suffer from an eating disorder, and this number may be higher since many people never acknowledge they have a problem, let alone seek formal treatment. The median age of onset for binge eating disorders is 21 years-old, and for anorexia and bulimia it’s 18 years-old, but women’s concerns about their bodies begin when they are girls as young as six.
While there are a number of…
