As part of my commitment to eating disorder recovery, I’ve decided to work my way through Christy Harrison’s podcast, Food Psych.
I started with episode #182, Fitness Culture, Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, and Why Hleath is Not an Obligation with Cara Harbstreet
CN: Description of eating disordered thinking
This episode focused on hypothalamic amenorrhea which, if you don’t know, is the cessation or disruption of your menstrual cycle due to dieting or over-exercise. This was really interesting for me because I had the condition for two years when I was a teenager. My doctor checked that I wasn’t pregnant and sent me on my way. I don’t think there’s much awareness about it even now.
I did find some of the content pretty challenging, which made me realise that I’m perhaps less recovered than I like to think. This was particularly the case when it came to exercise. I had a visceral reaction to the suggestion that in order to recover from over-exercise, you should consider stopping for a while. My inner voice immediately started yelling “NOOOOOOOOO!” The idea of stopping still feels unimaginable to me.
So I can see that this is going to be tougher than I expected, but I think it’s really important to continue.
