Will I ever be full recovered from my anorexia?


Guest blog by Hope Virgo, author of Stand Tall Little Girl 


I lived with anorexia from the ages of 12 to 17 before being admitted to a mental health hospital. The hospital became my home for the next year of my life when I had to battle to get well. I had to learn to eat again, to exercise in a healthy way and to learn to talk about how I was really feeling. These three things had become so foreign to me and at aged 17 it felt like I was back as a toddler having to learn how to live a life when I would eat enough and not be seduced by the anorexia. 




So 10 years on am I completely cured? Has my recovery been easy? 

Honestly to answer those questions - “No!” 

So how have I got to where I am? 
  1. Perseverance - the battle isn’t an overnight win, it is hard work and takes time but try and be the best at recovery. Beat that manipulative voice in your head who is lying to you! 
  2. Learning to talk - one of the hardest things for me but it helps. 
  3. Learning to remove all emotion from the food - when I first got help my weight seemed to go up so quickly and my brain took longer to catch up. But learning to eat and then saying “I am not okay” did me the world of good! 
  4. Accepting that I needed help. 
  5. Getting on top of my exercise. 
  6. Knowing and learning to accept that one bad day doesn’t mean everything is over.
  7. Accepting that some days I have to go back to the basics .
  8. Focusing on my motivations - I realised that there are things in life my anorexia would stop me doing; from having my own children, to running, to travelling. When I realised this I used these things to motivate me to keep eating and keep going. 
  9. Building up a network around me of people I trust to have these honest conversations with. 
  10. Pushing my boundaries - a tricky part to tackle but for me this was crucial for my recovery. making myself eat “scary food”; moving away from counting calories - all of it gave me more confidence in my recovery. 
I am not trained but I strongly believe that if you keep working hard you can get to a point where you can also manage your own recovery from your eating disorder. 

It took me 4 years to get help, a year of intensive treatment in hospital and one relapse to get to where I am now but that’s okay! Recovery isn’t one straight line and it isn’t always easy but getting to that point where you can recover is possible and is well worth fighting for. 

I now love life, I enjoy eating out and can eat last minute meals. I manage my recovery from anorexia. No I am not 100% okay all the time but I strongly believe you can get to this amazing place in your recovery where life is good! 

Keep fighting, Stand Tall and never give up! 
Hope's fabulous book, Stand Tall Little Girl, can be found here

Follow Hope on Twitter @HopeVirgo


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