Having completely dedicated myself to the field of recovery through starting Recovery Warriors, creating the Rise Up + Recover app, and hosting The Recovery Warrior Show it is kind of crazy that I never have told my full story.
In this show that all changes. I get into a really vulnerable place and share all.
I’m happy to finally be open and share my full story with you.
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Thank you, Jess. I am grateful for your courage and pluck. I’m learning from you today.
Thank you Suzie. I’m happy that you can learn something through listening to my story.
Kristine you are such a warrior! Thank you for sharing your story with me.
I’m glad you picked up on the message of never giving up. That is probably the most important one!
It really touches my heart to know that Recovery Warriors is helping you through your recovery. Keep up the amazing work!
Love how you are rockin’ “may compassion light the path you are on, and courage keep you on it…” You just made my day 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing your story. I have been struggling for decades with restrictive eating and anxiety/depression. I managed to go through grad school, run a marathon, get married, and start a family, to name just a few things I’ve done, in spite of my eating disorder. I’ve been through various types of treatment over the past 15 years, and I have had periods of remission, but it’s been hard to break the pattern when it’s been in place for so long. I have a treatment team at the moment, and I am still working toward recovery. Most times my children are my motivation. It’s hard to find internal motivation, though, because I feel like I’ve made it this far in life, so why change? There are lots of reasons, of course, but they just don’t feel very compelling most days. I look forward to listening to more podcasts, as I just found this website recently. Thanks again.
Hi Angelique! There are many reasons to work toward recovery! I know that some days this seems harder to believe than others. As you mentioned, your children are a very big one. I hope the podcast and resources on Recovery Warriors help you through the process. My most recent interview with Melissa Groman is a good one to listen to because she talks about resistance to recovery.
Jessica, I wanted to email you to thank you for this resource – I am in Australia and haven’t found anything like Recovery Warriors here (ps the Butterfly Foundation is Australia’s national organisation for ED support). I’ve struggled with anorexia and bulimia since I was 14 and have promised myself each year since that I will recover…I’m currently in grad school and while I’m proud of where I’ve got to I have days where I am so ashamed about the horrible things I do to myself and terrified that ED will destroy the dreams that I have for the future. On a more positive not – when I feel like giving up I listen to recovery warriors and try to remember that I can recover eventually! Thank you so much for what you do. I hope that when I’m ready I can try and help others as well 🙂 Amy
Hi Jessica. Thank you for sharing your story. It was very relatable. I 100% agree with your comment about genetics and environment. I was bullied and sexually abused in elementary school but wasn’t aware it was happening to me. I was very self critical, perfecting myself to avoid the teasing. I began to restrict and purge when I was ten. I developed social phobia and OCD, which worsened my depression. I eventually lost what friends I had left. After a suicide attempt I was hospitalized. And then four more times after that. I began to use alcohol as a way to kill myself, and because it mixed with my meds, it literally numbed me to the point of unconciousness. Now after two years of recovery, I’ve had long periods of being clean of purging and sober. I attend a specialized school with smaller classes, and even though I can’t be in my old advanced placement classes, I feel more confident in my grades because I am less pressured. I use your app , listen to the podcasts, and read a lot of the magazines. I am not fully recovered, but am finally surrendering to the process. It feels great.
I do a lot of research for my recovery, and it’s people like you, who help others in every way possible, that allows recovery to be a team process. I love having a community of people surrounding me, I love being educated through the process. I’m fifteen, 6 weeks clean of self harm, one week sober, an I LOVE being a recovery warrior 🙂
Jessica,
I just listened to this episode again, and you had me crying at my desk! What a beautiful story, and one that I’m sure many of people (including myself!) can really relate to. Things feel very dark and overwhelming right now, but listening to this episode gave me hope that there is light at the end of this tunnel. Thank you so much for sharing and for the work that you do with this podcast. I also listened to this week’s podcast this morning (Finding Your Voice with Michele Kabas) and loooved it. A common personality trait of people with eating disorders is the desire to help others (always going the extra mile, always putting others first and neglecting your own needs etc), so I loved the quote that she mentioned that talked about when you accept yourself you are giving other people the freedom to accept themselves, too. It is motivating to me to think that allllll this focus on my own problems/emotions/behaviors can someday be something that benefits other people, not just myself. Anyways, thanks for all that you and the Recovery Warriors do. I use the app/website/podcast to help me cope so often. It is so appreciated!!!! <3
Jess,
Thank you so so much for sharing. You are so easy to relate to and understand. Your story is so inspiring and heartfelt. You are beautiful on the inside and out, thank you thank you!