The Creation of Munch and Mend
Working towards recovery and finally letting go of my obsessions over food, weight, and shape was not easy and meant I had to dig deep to find who I truly was as a person. During this time I realised I had to identify, accept, and move past the regrets and missed opportunities to enable me to let go of my eating disorder once and for all.
The constant thoughts of the decades of time and resources I wasted on keeping my eating disorder alive made it impossible to see any positive outcomes from the unwavering dedication I showed ‘IT’ throughout my life — to the detriment of my physical and mental health.
But after committing to therapy that last time and having the opportunity to get involved with People Participation and volunteering to support local eating disorder and mental health services since then, this has been key to my continued recovery and an invaluable opportunity to turn the many years I sacrificed to anorexia and bulimia into a positive.
Through this work I have met some amazing people from both the medical field and fellow service users. Together we work to raise awareness and improve services with the primary goal of helping others struggling with eating disorders and mental health conditions.
Although I love this work, I needed something that was mine where I could push the boundaries and attempt to reach as many people as possible to raise awareness of the true sadistic nature of eating disorders, and challenge the shame and guilt that many silently battle with and — if like myself — internalise, which only escalates the symptoms and pushed me closer to my eating disorder.
his project has been very special to me, from the support and love I have received from my friends, family, and colleagues within the eating disorder services, to the icon being designed by my brother and the website being built from scratch by my amazing cousin in Ireland, who has captured everything I wanted and more. I couldn’t have wished for anything better.
All I want from this process is the chance to help just one person, and that to me is worth its weight in gold.
To find out more about the creation of Munch and Mend and how this has been key to my healing process and continued recovery, please refer to the video at the top of this post.
