Alex's Answer

Hi there, and thanks for contacting Ask Alex. 

You say you might have a self-love issue because your whole world revolves around your image, and you ask how you recover from eating issues. 

It must have been hard to get to that conclusion but let us say you just took the first step to recovery: acknowledging your struggle and reaching out for help and support. Then, how do we follow on from here? Well, to carry a load like that, you need broad shoulders. This means, you need a good support network around you who can carry it with you, listen to you, help you find professional help and accompany you through all the processes. Your support network can be your parents or other family members or another adult you trust; also, your friends or partner. You could open up to them about how you feel, about wanting to increase your levels of self-love and what you focus on when your mood is low; that way they can understand and be there for you.  

As important as it is to have support from our loved ones, when it comes to mental health, it is very important to get professional help. Professionals are there to guide us on our healing journey, to help us understand where we are at emotionally and mentally, where our feelings are coming from and to teach us the skills we need to make it better. Sometimes, when we experience low mood or we cannot find solutions to our challenges, we turn to things we can control such as counting calories, restricting our food intake or exercising for a certain number of hours a day. If we work on our problem-solving skills and we work on making ourselves feel better about who we are, we would be working on what started the eating issue in the first place. Considering chatting with your GP as they could refer you to CAMHS, counselling services or talk to you about other mental health organisations such as Jigsaw (www.jigsaw.ie). You might also find this website helpful: https://www.bodywhysbodyimage.ie/  

If ever you need to talk about it but don’t feel ready to confide in someone in your life, know Childline is here for you. We will listen and support you whenever you need too. You can call us on 1800 666 666 or use the live chat in our website www.childline.ie. 

We hope this helped and we hope you feel better soon! 

Take care, 

Alex