Leanne Waters: How love saved me from bulimia

By Ciara Dwyer
Monday Nov 7 2011 
Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

The first thing that strikes you about Leanne Waters is her vibrancy. It's in her beautiful brown eyes, her warm smile, her mane of brown hair, her glowing skin and in her laughter too.
She appears as a woman who is happy in her own skin. And she is, now. But it wasn't always so.
Time was when she was very troubled and it showed. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes, her skin was flaky and her hair used to fall out in clumps. These were the results of her self-destructive behaviour.

For many years Leanne's life was blighted by bulimia, the eating disorder where a person binge eats and then forces themselves to vomit the food back up. She has written a memoir about her time as a bulimic -- My Secret Life.

Finally she is out the other side. When I met her on a wet, blustery afternoon in her home town of Bray, Co Wicklow, she was like sunshine on a rainy day. As I listened to her tale, it struck me that the 21-year-old sounded so calm and strong. She has examined her life, in therapy sessions and in solitude, and now she is the healthy end result of all that self-analysis. It's been a long journey to get to where she is today, with much misery and tears along the way. There was a time when the illness took over and she became a different person, one she didn't like.

Deception goes hand in hand with an eating disorder and Leanne became so secretive and furtive that she pushed her family and close friends away. But their love and concern for her was so strong that they insisted she confront her problem and get help.
...Continue reading here.
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If you are in recovery from an eating disorder, what might you be able to share from your journey that may be an encouragement to others who are currently struggling?