“Now, did you say you had a weight problem, too?”
The top half of a wealthy, retired white lady stares at me blankly through both our computer screens and straight into my horrified soul, awaiting an answer. She’s a mentor with a business co-op that helps struggling youths (me) start their business. Always one to avoid confrontation at all costs, I squinted, claimed there was a meteor quickly advancing toward Portland and could we circle back on this later?
In my extensive two months in the biz, the most common question I’m asked after telling someone I’m a nutritionist in eating disorder recovery is something along the lines of “Oh, have you had an eating disorder?” which I like to translate in my head to, “Oh, have you used food as a coping mechanism to face a time in which it is traumatic to be alive and also a bunch of childhood stuff?“
Yes.
We all do.
We are all swimming in the water of moralistic diet culture and consumerist tunnel vision. And well, some of us start drowning in it sooner than others and we need someone to come along and say “hey, it’s not you- you’re great- it’s the rest of the world that’s stupid.”
Hi, I’m Louisa, and I might be that person for you.