February 28, 2008 - Children’s Hospital Evening
Baring Souls.
Below is a talk I presented from The Black Dog Project at Princess Margaret Children’s Hospital, Bridge’s inspirational evening, during Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week, September 2008. Audience – patients, sufferers, carers, families, health professionals.
I think a lot of you here tonight would have heard of or know about The Black Dog Project so I’ve decided to step out from behind the Black Dog tonight and talk (uncomfortably) about myself. I’ll start by talking about what prompted me to change the focus of my talk.
On Monday I attended the launch of Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness Week. One of the speakers was Chris Harris (a Psychologist from Princess Margaret Children’s hospital). Chris said something very simple yet quite profound. It was along the lines of;
“ . . . eating disorders are an indication that something’s not right. “
It was the ‘not right’ that made me sit a little taller in my seat. . . . his use of not right when he could have said ‘something’s wrong’.
Being diagnosed with having something wrong with you can feel much like being crushed into the carpet. I’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder. It was so refreshing to hear someone flip the whole ‘disorder’ business on its head with a slight change of words. And words are really that powerful, that significant, to who we are and how we feel. How we see and perceive ourselves and the world around us.
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