Quickly approaching now is the last week of February. For most, this may just be any other week of the year, but for me, this week has exciting things in store. I will, in fact, be completing one of my New Year’s Resolutions: speak out about my eating disorder. I’ve chosen this specific week because it happens to be the National Eating Disorder Association’s Awareness Week (NEDAwareness Week). This year’s theme is “I Had No Idea.” NEDA wants to emphasize the realities of eating disorders in an effort to address the misconceptions that surround them. Seeing as NEDA is one of the leading advocates in the world of eating disorder awareness, I’m excited to be joining in on the week and doing my small part to try and raise some awareness about eating disorders amongst people I know by sharing my story more openly on my personal social media accounts.

I realize that those of you who have followed my blog for a while have been able to follow me on a decent portion of my journey as it has unfolded. I will still be sharing my full story, from pre-ED up to the present on my blog at the beginning of the week though. Writing this piece was an experience that I am truly glad I now have had. It was the first time I had really written out my story as a whole, and doing so allowed me to reflect on various aspects of it that I had never dwelled on before. Hopefully, you all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Beyond sharing my version of my story, I will be sharing several versions of the story as told by some of those closest to me. These pieces will be about how my eating disorder has affected them and will offer a fresh perspective. Finally, I will be writing about my reasons for opening up about my eating disorder and sharing that on my blog at some point during the week as well.

Because of the extra writing I’ve been doing in preparation for NEDAwarness Week, I’ve decided that I will not be posting for the next two Sundays. Now, next Thursday I’m hoping to spend a few moments simply exploring some of the emotions I’m experiencing at the time due to it being only a few days before the beginning of NEDAwareness Week. This is something I am currently planning on doing, but I’m not going to stress about it if it does not pan out because the week after will see a lot of activity here on the blog.

I must end by thanking each and every one of you who continue to come back and read what I have to say week after week. While many of you are strangers to me, simply seeing that you’ve visited the blog and liked a post or two means the world to me. My blog has become an immensely helpful tool to me in recovery, and having the support of my readers is great encouragement to me to keep up the fight. As I continue writing, I hope that you all can continue to enjoy following me on my journey.