Body Positive Writer’s Journey: Recovering from Eating Disorder & Loving Larger Curves
- Megan Jayne Crabbe describes her recovery as a shift from trying to minimize every aspect of herself to embracing her fullest potential.
- Crabbe, 31, first became aware of dieting before teh age of 10.
- At 14, Crabbe received diagnoses of anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphia.
Megan Jayne Crabbe on Recovery and Redefining ‘After’
Megan Jayne Crabbe describes her recovery as a shift from trying to minimize every aspect of herself to embracing her fullest potential. “my ‘before’ was trying to make myself as small as possible in every conceivable way: my body, voice, emotions, opinions,” she says. “My ‘after’ is allowing myself to be my biggest self, though that looks.”
Crabbe, 31, first became aware of dieting before teh age of 10. as she entered puberty, this awareness intensified, and she began focusing on magazine articles detailing body modification. She restricted her eating as a way to cope with anxiety related to school and adolescence.
At 14, Crabbe received diagnoses of anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphia. She believed she was overweight and needed to lose more weight. For years, she hid the severity of her illness until physical symptoms became undeniable. These included severe fatigue, low blood pressure, hearing loss, and dizziness.”There’s hair that grows all over your body,as its trying to keep itself warm,” she explained.
Crabbe spent several months in both mental health facilities and hospitals.Her condition reached a critical point when doctors warned her parents that her body could fail at any moment. She was hospitalized and required feeding through a tube. “In that time where your eating disorder is saying to you, ‘You have to stay in control’, having that taken away is torturous.”