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Author: Darcie Wenner

Living Out Loud - Finding balance, hope and inspiration with Brittany Burgunder

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Posted on February 11, 2019March 31, 2020 by Darcie Wenner by Darcie Wenner

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NEDA Awareness Week 2021
Beyond Measure
How I Recovered
When Food Rules Your Life
Who Are You?

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✨Photographs of myself. Photographs of my mind

✨Photographs of myself. Photographs of my mind. Photographs of an affliction that's impossible to capture. It's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. It's one of the weeks I'm most proud to celebrate. And it's also a week I wish I knew nothing about. But turning a blind eye is what prolonged my struggle, and it only perpetuates the stigmas surrounding eating disorders.

Opioid addiction aside, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental health disorders. I almost became a part of this statistic, though I never believed it could happen to me. I was diagnosed with anorexia at 13. It had nothing to do with food or weight. But the more weight I lost, and the more I engaged in disordered behaviors —the more my anxious mind quieted.

My struggle peaked when I was a freshman in college. My weight fell to that of an 8-year-old. I was dying. But my eating disorder convinced me I still wasn't sick. After a long hospitalization, I defied the odds and miraculously survived. But my journey was far from over.

My battle with anorexia morphed into binge eating disorder. Only 18 months after I almost lost my life to anorexia, I was clinically obese. Although my eating disorder "looked" different, nothing else had changed. It was still the same underlying issues driving my maladaptive ways to cope. A vicious fight with bulimia unfolded next. My quest to recover always seemed to fall short. But I never gave up.

My rock bottom was not physical, but rather mental. I reached a point where I wanted a better life for myself. I worked diligently with a therapist and dietician, and I learned healthy ways to cope with problems. My eating disorder was a symptom of deeper issues —not the other way around. And as my mind healed, so did everything else in my life.

Eating disorders are complex, multifaceted illnesses. My biggest regret is that I didn’t reach out or accept support sooner. Full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. There were many times I was told I was a hopeless case and would never recover. I questioned if this were true —"maybe they're right and I can't recover." But I did ... and so can you. ~Britt💜
#EatingDisorderAwareness

💫I am extremely well-versed in upwards social c

💫I am extremely well-versed in upwards social comparison. I tend to compare myself to other individuals who I believe are better than me. Maybe they're smarter, have a more successful job, are a better athlete, seem happier, look prettier, and have what appears to be ideal relationships. I have an innate ability to magnify other’s strengths and overlook their flaws, while I magnify my flaws and overlook my strengths. Rationally I understand this is distorted thinking, but subconsciously I beat myself up for not being more accomplished —whatever that means.

The deeper issue is I will never measure up or feel confident if I base my success against those who don't share my same path. I struggled with severe eating disorders for over a decade. That is a hard pill to swallow. It's incredibly difficult to battle a private war against yourself while simultaneously trying to appear unscathed to the public. Nonetheless, I still held myself to the same standards as my peers who did not share my same challenges. I could never meet those standards. Not when I also had to meet the standards my eating disorder demanded.

It may seem as if I'm just too competitive, or jealous, or driven. To be honest it's the opposite. I want nothing more than to be liked, to be accepted, and to feel good enough. But I've learned external achievements can't give me these things.

And when I look back on my life, I see a girl who has qualities that cannot be measured or ranked. I see the invisible victories she's won, and I hear the silent screams she learned to soothe. She has a PhD in healing, a gold medal in perseverance, a happiness that radiates from within, and a relationship with herself that was worth every misstep to find. I have come farther than anyone ever believed possible, but deep down I must have known I could overcome anything. ~Britt💜

🎉I’m so excited to share that Equip, a new co

🎉I’m so excited to share that Equip, a new company dedicated to transforming eating disorder treatment, has announced its launch. THIS is the treatment program I needed years ago, and it could have made all the difference with helping me reach recovery during my early struggles.

A big challenge in my recovery was finding a collaborative support team that I trusted and that my parents could rely on to help keep me accountable. I often doubted if recovery was possible because I lacked support from individuals who had been in my shoes. One of the great things about Equip is that it provides every patient with a dedicated five-person care team including a therapist, dietician and medical doctor, along with a peer mentor and family mentor who've gone through treatment themselves.

Part of what makes Equip's treatment approach so effective is it provides a virtual program delivering Family-Based Treatment at home that promises lasting recovery. This allows families to arrange treatment to fit their schedules and needs, and makes gold-standard care accessible to all. Personally, this is a component that would have helped me greatly. My attempts to recover in treatment programs often failed because they didn't resemble real life nor offered the ongoing support and tools I needed to continue making progress at home.

I often think about my own family and how difficult it was for them to navigate the best ways to help me. My parent's desperately wanted guidance from medical experts, but they also needed feedback from other parents who had been through similar situations. They wanted hope for their daughter. Equip listens, and was founded upon what patients and parents need most for a successful recovery.💚

👉Check out @equiphealth or visit equip.health to learn more!

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Professional Inquiries Only. For business and media related opportunities, or inquiries regarding "Safety in Numbers" please contact Brittany Burgunder by Email: inquiries@brittanyburgunder.com or Phone: 805.234.7148

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