My mom, my class’s inspiration

In OT, we cover a variety of topics and one of them included EATING DISORDERS. This topic is very close to my heart as my mom has been suffering with an eating disorder since she was 12 years old. It has been a constant battle for her, and inevitably, for our family. When this topic came up in lectures, it was tough to hear some of what was said but it gave me a greater understanding into the disorder and how it really is a disorder and not something that is easily controlled. I told my mom about what we had covered in class and she offered to discuss her experience with my class. I was blown away, my mom wanted to give back  What was great is that my mom has been for Occupational Therapy for her eating disorder so she knew a bit about what we do and how to approach the topic. The thing about my mom, when she does something, she does it PROPERLY. so she asked for all my eating disorder notes and consulted all the notes she had received in therapy. As the day approached of my mom’s talk, nerves were mounting for the both of us. Firstly, because this is a very personal and sensitive topic and we didn’t know how it would plan out. And secondly, my mom had never done this before and thirdly, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to handle the emotions behind what we have been through as a family with this disorder. But the day came, and I have never been so proud of my mom. She was so honest, so open and so real with my class. She wasn’t ashamed, and I think this played a major part in the class learning that this is a disorder, it is so difficult to control and it is not an attention seeking thing. This disorder is real, and it is scary. My mom got told when she was young that she was fat, and not having the emotional support of her father and always trying to be a perfectionist to impress him, this all contributed to the beginning of this disorder. Something happens in the mind, where you feel like you have no control over the things in your life, and your weight becomes something so easy to control. It becomes a vicious cycle when one tries to control their weight, and eventually, that person loses control of controlling their weight as their life spirals out of control. From an OT perspective, we focus on the control aspect and how to “control the controllables”. We focus on stress management, insight into the disorder, how to prevent episodes of the eating disorder etc. Something so interesting with my mom is that whenever she ate, she would have the urge to purge. The OT taught her different methods of distraction after eating a meal. My mom started a vegetable garden and whenever she finishes eating, she will go straight to the garden, or make a phonecall or read a book so that she is distracted from these thoughts. My mom took a giant step the day she spoke to my class. It was so incredibly therapeutic for her recovery as she had recently started recovering from an episode of weight loss. I have never been so proud of my mom as I was that day. My mom touched the lives of OT students in my class as she made the effort to read our notes and make the talk as beneficial as possible. She shared her heart and her emotions, and it was therapeutic for me as I too got to share the effects that it has on the family. It was a great day. If this post has inspired you, and you would like my mom to speak to a group of people or at a school in the Durban area, she will be more than happy to. E-mail me at nikitasweet26@gmail.com