This Summer

Summer 2013 will go down in history as the summer I started kicking my eating disorder's butt.

Before you get ahead of yourself, we're not talking anorexia or bulimia here, but a selective eating disorder. My entire life I've pretty much been afraid of food, and that fear has also created a little bit of a social anxiety disorder. So invite me to a dinner party and I'd probably come up with an awesome excuse not to come even though I'd love to hang out with you. Oh, dating gets super fun too. Guy tells me we're going out to dinner but I some how convince him I had a big lunch or something so I don't have to admit that there's nothing on the menu I can eat without gagging.

But this summer I finally sucked it up and got into therapy for it. Why did I wait this long? Honestly, it's because my brother and sister have been in therapy their entire lives for their depression or anxiety. That's great and I know it's helped them a ton, but I've always had this idea in my head that normal, healthy people don't need therapy, and going to therapy would be admitting to being abnormal and broken in some way.

Right away it started helping a ton. My therapist set me up with a dietitian and both of them started giving me assignments for different foods to try. I still remember my second week I had to bring in an orange and peel it. I was SO grateful I didn't have to eat it! Touching it at first was scary enough! But week after week of having to eat all these foods I had avoided my entire life it started getting easier. My anxiety started to slowly drop every time I had to try something new. I started actually finding things I liked and things I wished I had been eating my entire life. 

So here at the end of the summer I feel like I'm to the point that if you put something in front, unless it's fish, I could eat it. I may make a funny face or eat it the wrong way, but I could get it into my mouth and successfully into my stomach! :) Also I found out I love:

Pineapple

Apples

Oranges

Carrots

Corn on the cob

Honeydew

Mushrooms

Meatballs

Hot Dogs