Christian help is available for eating disorders 

To coincide with Eating Disorder Awareness Week (February 23 to March 1), Norwich-based volunteer with Christian eating disorders charity tastelife UK, Deborah Lechmere, describes her own family experience and points to a way forward.

Back in 2014, my younger daughter, then aged 14, was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Although we were aware for a while that she had been having difficulties, we were all shocked with the diagnosis and what a horrible condition it is.  She is currently able to live fully independently and maintain a responsible job whilst studying part-time for a doctorate.  However, anorexia is still a daily struggle for her.

Having lived through this, and particularly the time when she was extremely unwell, I wanted to support other people and families going through the same thing. At one point she was in a wheelchair because her heart was so stressed, but her church prayed and the next day we had the all clear for her heart.

She spent about a year in total in hospital, which made it even more important for me to try and help others. I was especially keen to do this with a Christan charity. As a result of the pandemic, I discovered tastelife which was included in Spring Harvest at Home and works with those with eating disorders and their families and friends, and is also active in the field of raising awareness.
 
tastelife has a number of strands of work.  It has developed a fully accredited Recovery Course. It has eight sessions and 85% of those who attend say it has helped them make a real step forward in their recovery, or that of a loved one.

Uniquely, the course is for those with any form of eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating etc) diagnosed or not, and also for those who are supporting a family member or friend with an eating disorder.  The course focuses on the underlying issues which are common to all of these conditions rather than being about physical symptoms. 

The majority of leaders are Christians and all have to be sympathetic to the ethos. Most of the leaders have a lived experience of an eating disorder either themselves or with a loved one.  The course is open to all but many attendees are Christians themselves. Christians are by no means exempt from eating disorders, and indeed sometimes there can be an extra layer of difficulty for those who do have a faith who feel guilt about their illness. 

We are currently in the season of Lent and an additional temptation for those who are already restricting their diet is to give up something for Lent and is a source of guilt for those for whom binge eating is a problem.  Alongside the general material, each session has some optional Christian content and Christian leaders will often offer the opportunity for prayer to participants who want this.

A second strand is work with young people to educate and hopefully prevent eating disorders or to allow them to understand more to support friends.  Youth Track is an off-the-shelf course that can be run in schools.  There is now a Christian version of the course Food, Feelings and Faith which is ideal for Church youth groups.

Finally, work is done on wider awareness through events in parliament, lunchtime webinars on a range of topics and building relationships with the NHS where possible.

If you or a loved one has an eating disorder why not sign up for a one-night taster course to see if the eight week course could be right for you.

If you are a youth leader look at the material available to help your youth group.  Sadly it is almost certain that the members of the group will know of somebody with an eating disorder.

It would also be wonderful if you would consider supporting the charity either financially or consider training as a leader.

If you are interested in finding out more please visit the website www.tastelifeuk.org

You can also contact Deborah, who worships at St Francis Heartsease in Norwich, at: deborah.lechmere@ntlworld.com

Pictured above is tastelife volunteer Deborah Lechmere.