Love from, Florence Grace

WARNING : The following content is sensitive and may be found triggering to those suffering from, recovering from or those who have recovered from an eating disorder or mental health problem. When we think eating disorders, we think skinny. We think sagging skin and jutting bones, two fingers down a throat forcing food to reemerge from our system. We do not often think of the other end of the spectrum- not the people who refuse to eat, but rather, the people who can't stop. Obesity effects between 16 and 33% of young adults and kills 300,000 people a year. Although it is one of the easiest medical conditions to diagnose, it is one of the most difficult to treat. In comparison to anorexia and bulimia, obesity is not regarded as an eating disorder. Rather, people will look at a victim of obesity and think "they clearly eat too much" or "they're so fat it's disgusting". People don't often stop to think about why  the victim may be eating too muc...

WARNING:  The following content is sensitive and may be triggering to those suffering from, recovering from or recovered from depression and/or other mental health problems. We all know when somebody is ill, or not quite right. It is normally quite obvious. If it's anorexia, they look frail and you can see every bone in their body through their skin. If it's a cold, we see the victim with a red raw nose, tissues in hand. If someone has broken a bone, we see a cast, or crutches. If it's cancer, we see people who are losing their hair, in wheelchairs or maybe even hooked up to an oxygen tank. Most of the time, when we see these people, we feel sorry for them. If it's a friend, or a family member, we might even buy them a card and some flowers, telling them we hope they get better soon. Depression is not the same as the other illnesses above. Yes, it is like anorexia and can take over your life, affecting every aspect of it. Yes, like a cold, it will affect you for th...

WARNING:  The following content is sensitive and me be triggering to those suffering from, recovering from or who have recovered from eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia and other health problems such as depression. As I sit down in my local pub ready to tuck into my generous portion of gammon and chips, I feel a prickle on the back of my neck- that all to familiar feeling of knowing that someone is staring at you. As I whip my head around the dining area, my eyes fall on the slender figure of a girl, probably around my age, maybe a few years younger, looking at me with disgust in her eyes- disgust clearly at the way I look and what I'm eating. I feel fat, bulky, uncomfortable and I let my glance fall to her own plate, noticing she has a salad, mostly untouched. She sips constantly at her water like it's the only thing keeping her alive. It probably is. It is a sad but true statistic that over half of teenage girls and one third of teenage boys use unhealthy wei...

WARNING:  The following content is sensitive and can be found triggering to those suffering from, recovering from or have recovered from health problems such as depression or suicidal thoughts and those recovering/recovered from problems surrounding drug abuse. It was a sad case of affairs when the death of Peaches Geldof was announced back in April. The tv presenter and model mum-of-two was found in her home having overdosed on heroin, relapsing after a 4 month period of being 'clean'. The death was originally ruled as 'sudden' and 'not suspicious' but 4 months on coroners found this to be untrue, with the dose that ended Peaches life being discovered in a box of sweets next to her bed, and a further £550 worth of high purity heroin being found in a cupboard in the family home. As expected, the death of Peaches bought the death of her mother back to the surface, and many people are calling it a 'sad case of history repeating itself'. But should his...