An analogy that I’ve always loved to use, yet somehow pushed down to the bottom of my mind, is this: recovering from an eating disorder is like climbing a mountain. You might start off great and feel like you have everything going for you but the more you climb the more tired you become. It’s hard work. You’ll want to turn around and begin the descent multiple times – it feels like the easy option, the one thing you know how to do: returning to your eating disorder. But if you persevere and keep on climbing, even when everything in your body is screaming at you to stop, you’ll eventually reach the top of the mountain. And when you do you can look out over the amazing view and finally say “I made it!”

To those who know me well, you’ll know that I have a love for Grey’s Anatomy. I am bloody obsessed with it. And it was, of course, a quote from Grey’s that reminded me of this analogy last night. Meredith says:

They take pictures of mountain climbers at the top of a mountain. They’re smiling, ecstatic, triumphant. They don’t take pictures along the way ‘cos who wants to remember the rest of it. We push ourselves because we have to, not because we like it. The relentless climb, the pain and anguish of taking it to the next level. Nobody takes pictures of that. Nobody wants to remember. We just wanna remember the view from the top. The breathtaking moment at the edge of the world. That’s what keeps us climbing. And it’s worth the pain. That’s the crazy part. It’s worth anything.

And all I could think about was how true this is when applied to recovery. It doesn’t necessarily have to be recovery from an eating disorder either, it could be recovery from an addiction, from PTSD, perhaps something physical. Once you reach the top of the mountain, once you recover, you get that breathtaking moment where you realise that the pain was worth it, the fight was worth it, every tear you shed and the horrible moments you endured… they were all worth it.

So if you’re currently climbing your mountain and want to turn back, return to the bottom, back to what is familiar… remember that nothing can compete with the feeling you’ll get at the top. It’s hard but oh my gosh is it worth it!

All my love,

Anna x