{"id":10990,"date":"2018-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/condition-bulimia-eating-disorder-survivor-encouragement\/"},"modified":"2018-05-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T00:00:00","slug":"condition-bulimia-eating-disorder-survivor-encouragement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/condition-bulimia-eating-disorder-survivor-encouragement\/","title":{"rendered":"This Model Shared a Powerful Post About Overcoming an Eating Disorder to Love Her Body"},"content":{"rendered":"
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Week, model and body image activist Charli Howard shared a transformation post, revealing how her body has changed for the better after surviving an eating disorder. One image shows Howard in jeans and a tank during a time in her life when she felt weak and unhappy; the other image shows her rocking a black bra and panties, highlighting her confidence, self-worth, and love for her present, healthier body.<\/p>\n “My life on the left was miserable… I felt I had to pretend that I was happy, so that my secret bulimia and obsessive low-calorie diets wouldn’t be discovered," she captioned the photo. "I wanted people to believe I was genuinely this thin and felt like a total liar.”<\/p>\n In her post, Howard recalls her eating disorder making her feel unsuccessful, unloved, ugly, and a waste of space. She says she wanted to become invisible; losing weight wasn’t necessarily about getting skinny, but rather an attempt to shed her insecurities. There were even times Howard says she wished to not exist. “I couldn't ever imagine a life where I FINALLY got to be happy or where food and calories didn't dictate my every move,” she wrote in her caption.<\/p>\n Today, Howard uses social media to encourage women to not worry about perceived flaws such as stretch marks, cellulite, or having a “squishy” tummy. (She uses #squishysundays to show followers that she’s proud of her figure.) She recently posted a modeling photo of herself, in which she says she's gained 19 pounds in the last two years and is "so much happier."<\/p>\n And her body-positivity influence in the mental health world doesn't stop there. She is the co-founder of the All Woman Project<\/a>, a women-for-women movement spreading the message of inclusion, diversity, and self-love, and also the author of Misfit: One Size Does Not Fit All<\/em> ($15; [tempo-ecommerce src="https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Misfit-Charli-Howard\/dp\/0241328829" rel="sponsored" target="_blank">obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and eating disorders.<\/p>\n RELATED: 9 Ways to Help a Friend With an Eating Disorder<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Eating disorders and anxiety disorders often go hand-in-hand<\/a>: Two-thirds of people with an eating disorder also have an anxiety disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder seems to have the strongest association with eating disorders.<\/p>\n In a prior interview, bariatric psychologist Paul Davidson, PhD, director of behavioral services at the Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told Health<\/em><\/a> that having control is a big part of both eating disorders and anxiety. Food restriction may start as a coping mechanism, he explained. "We can’t stop breathing, but we can <\/i>control how much fluid we take in or what we eat." In the case of an eating disorder, what began as a coping mechanism can quickly become dangerous.<\/p>\n