Are you listening?

When I was in college, I struggled with an eating disorder for 8 months. My junior year had some rough patches and without realizing it, my harmless attempt to lose a little bit of weight warped into an unhealthy habit.

I put myself through intense workouts every morning at 5am and kept a list of every single piece of food I ate throughout the day. I was hungry all the time. I would binge eat and then starve myself for the next day out of guilt for letting myself consume more than 1,500 calories.

Deep down, part of me knew what I was doing was unhealthy, but the way people commented on how good I looked kept me from reaching out for help.