Episode 12: Eating Disorders and Support System

Meg:

This episode was one of such great importance. Thank you so much to our friend Alaina who was so brave and articulate in sharing her story with us about eating disorders and her own support systems. I think hearing from Alaina about her own personal account with an eating disorder was so insightful, and really opened up my eyes on the struggles people go through when they have an eating disorder. Something really important that Alaina said during the interview was how everybody’s story is not linear, and how everyone copes in a unique way. Having people around to uplift you and remembering that not everything you see online is the whole truth are two really important points Alaina brought up. Something that stuck with me from this interview was when Alaina spoke about her relapse. I think society holds a certain view that once you are better, it is as if you can never ask for help again. I think it’s important for us to stray away from this idea, and normalize that it is ok to seek out help whenever you feel that you are in a place where it is needed. The pandemic was another thing we discussed with Alaina, especially regarding how hard it was to be confined within a certain area. With being at home, we all had a lot more time to reflect and think, sometimes not in the best way. It is easy for us to fall into a habit of comparing ourselves with what seems like other people’s “perfect” lives, especially with social media being such a prevalent aspect of everyone’s lives. It is important for us to take a step back every once and a while and reflect that what people post are only highlights of their lives, and that there is always more to the story that we may not know. We hope you guys learned something from this episode and hope that it was insightful! Thank you so much once again to Alaina for taking the time to talk to us about your story!

Eshaan:

First, I want to say a big “Thank You” to Alaina for partaking in this episode. Meg and I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your busy summer to talk to us and our listeners regarding your story with eating disorders. I learnt a lot from Alaina with how to support people who suffer from eating disorders. Just something as simple as saying that you are there for them can go a long way for someone who is suffering from an ED. Additionally, it was interesting to hear how Alaina coped with her ED at 10 years old, which is when she developed the ED. She discussed that it was hard to deal with at such a young age but as things got better, she relapsed as a teenager, during high school, which is such a pivotal time in our lives. She also talked about how social media affected her. As she said, social media depicts the best of peoples’ lives. It does not depict what is actually going on, which can affect people who think that someone else has the best life ever because of what is on their social media. It is important to remember that social media does not depict what is actually going on in people’s lives. It can be so easy to compare your life to someone elses on social media, and this is something that we should not do. Another thing I found interesting was how the pandemic affected her. During the pandemic, mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression rose because people did not know what was going on and were lacking a sense of structure because everyone was stuck at home. She found that this caused her to relapse and she let her ED gain control of her. Overall, this episode was super informative to everyone and both Meg and I were so thankful to Alaina for doing this episode!