Moorea Friedman

Our conversation, though, quickly turned to something else that happened to both of us.

You see the protagonists and they're all like so beautiful.

And you're like, do I have to look like that to be worthy, to be lovable?

The world was spiraling out of control and now my body was spiraling out of control.

And so what did I try to do?

I tried to control it.

And it was only when we went to the doctor and they're like, no, this isn't healthy.

Your heart isn't doing that well.

You haven't had your period in months.

Eating disorders are hard to put into words, but they are not choices.

She wanted to know what makes recovery sustainable and

especially given all these outside influences and pressures from the internet, from diet culture in general, from the people around us.

And how can we protect ourselves when these triggering images and words will inevitably appear because of the world that we live in?

I'm trying to really move forward, be like, how can I redefine what is empowering to me?

How can I be whole without needing to micromanage every piece of myself?

Because with eating disorders, it's never just about the food.

It's never just about your body.

It's all a manifestation of something that's so much more complex underneath.

But now I'm really trying to do the work to separate food and my body from those other feelings in my life so that I can learn how to stop sabotaging myself and to just try to learn to be me.