Yes Sophie has gone. Gone to chase her dreams, gone to become fully independent and be responsible for her own life. Whatever happens now is on her terms.
Huge step forward and a wrenching for us both. Being only a 3 hour drive would have been hard enough. But instead she is a two hour flight. It is a long distance in between. We have grown close and are good friends as well as mother/daughter. It is about learning to put our relationship into the new and right context.
We are both worried as to how she will cope once semester starts and a full uni load is added. At this stage, she is full of confidence and trying hard to grow up and be responsible. It is the first time she is fully responsible for shopping for her food, cooking and eating it. So far she is probably over compensating her food in fear she may not be eating enough.
In time that will all even out too. Recovery is about learning to be flexible, intuitive and normal about food eating. Soph can now really learn what that means when she is on her own and doing it for herself.
As her teachers and support people have said, to have seen her four years ago and to see her now. What a difference and many never thought she would get this far, this well. It makes my heart swell with pride (and my eyes prick with tears) to know just how hard and fraught the journey has been, and how my beautiful daughter has risen over it all to be where she is now.
Yes you can recover, and recovery is never to be compared to anyone else’s. You cannot compare your journey to someone else. You cannot say someone else had it easier/harder than you. There is no such thing in the world of eating disorders, particularly anorexia.
The journey in and out is hellish hard but the recovery level you reach will ALWAYS be far better than having the eating disorder in charge of your life.
