crafting with a purpose

THIS IS OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL!!

I’m going through my blog and adding the #guysrecover tag to everything I have from the past but I don’t know if they’ll show up when you search the tag.

ANYWAY- we need to support all the guys out there struggling. It shouldn’t be so difficult for them to find it. This tag can be a safe, recovery based tag so guys can find support when they need it.

“Keep on Keeping On” - Travie McCoy, ft. Brendon Urie

Spike stitch square, by Craft-O-Rama.

Eating Disorder Recovery Zine

By Lorna

In March 2015, as part of my medical school’s medical humanities project I was given the task of creating a zine with the theme of ‘recovery’.

For those who don’t know what a zine is (I didn’t!), it is a short, self-published magazine that tends to deal with issues that are controversial and therefore are often not covered by more mainstream media.

I decided to create my zine with the theme of eating disorder recovery. This was a tough decision for me, because researching other people’s recoveries brought back many emotions I suffered from an eating disorder for over a year.  With the help of my doctor and my parents, I put back on the weight I lost and gained back my life for myself.

I wrote the zine as if I was addressing a younger version of me, at the start of recovery when I felt alone and frightened. It uses advice that has helped me over the years and also tips I found on blogs during my research, which I believe I would have found helpful during my own recovery.

The idea of the zine is that you print it out and carry it around with you, reading it and rereading it when you feel like you need to. I hope that it will help people in recovery through times when they can feel their ED taking over.

It offers small pieces of motivation, tips and space for the user to add their own ideas and tips as they learn what triggers them and what helps them. This personalized aspect of the zine was important to me – everyone experiences ED and recovery differently, so it was vital to me that the zine itself was unique to the user.

You can find my zine here and on tumblr. Feel free to print and share!

Please bear in mind that I’m not a doctor (yet!) and any advice is based on my own and other ED sufferers’ experiences. If you are in recovery now, stay strong and keep fighting – I promise you it’s worth it!

About this blogger: Lorna is a first year medical student in the UK. She suffered with an eating disorder for around a year and hopes to use what she has learned through her experiences to help others going through the same thing. She loves to travel; last year she visited 6 countries in 2 weeks whilst interrailing around Europe. She is the captain of her university’s netball team and has recently taken up weightlifting.

For more body positive and ED-related art, check out:

Meet the Artist: Mikhaila Nodel

Meet the Artist: Vanessa Papstavros