When I was 15 I started a diet because I saw myself as “fat” (62 kg for 1.65 height), ugly and I didn’t accept myself. I went walking every day.
I started to lose 5 kg until I lost 10.
This could be normal, but I was obsessed with controlling the calories of all foods.
The months passed, I was increasingly sad and I no longer had a dialogue with my parents; I often retired to my room and cried.
I didn’t go out anymore, I didn’t have a social life, I had great difficulty concentrating on my studies, I no longer had any stimuli.
One night with my family we went out to dinner and when they presented us with the menu I panicked and started to cry.
I wanted to eat a nice plate of pasta, but I simply couldn’t. My parents were confused and didn’t understand. But that night they realized I had a problem.
In the following days we sought the help of a psychologist and a nutritionist, but they were not very helpful and the malaise became stronger and stronger.
Then my mother learned about a conference on eating disorders, so she suggested that I participate. After a bit of hesitation, I accepted and so we went.
During the conference I heard a sentence that I will never forget: “I am sick, I need help!”.
The next day we made an appointment with an Association.
They informed us of the presence of a team formed by a psychologist, psychiatrist and nutritionist.
Little by little, step by step I saw changes, first small, then bigger and bigger.
After a year I can say that I am not yet cured, but my relationships with everyone have improved a lot: I have a dialogue, I go out with friends, I go to the restaurant, I am less sad and I also do better at school.
I can only say that I would have needed to know much more about these problems, and to be taken by the hand and to have had an adult outside the family to talk to would have helped.
Teachers and school staff are in a prime position to spot the early signs of an eating disorder. I would like there to be a school psychologist. A role that has been discussed a lot in the newspapers, but has never arrived in my school.