Wendelyn Daly

 TW: Religious Trauma, Eating Disorder, Church, Suicide, Mental Illness, Privilege, My hubby took this picture of me at the Field Museum in Chicago.  While I didn't ask him to take a picture, I did ask him to take various shots because I didn't like the previous one(s). Trauma says I don't include pics of myself in my blog posts.  Healing says that I need to take up space. Dear Reader,   An eating disorder is a complex thing.  Many characteristics are shared and that breathes a sigh of relief into my soul.  If my body adapted like their bodies adapted and we can share this journey, I do not have to travel alone.  Yet, there are many characteristics that are unique to me.  My personality, my childhood, my choices.  Me. Me. Me.  Alone.  Feeling unlovable because no one is going to touch this crazy with a ten foot pole.  Wait.  That was my ED speaking and I have concrete evidence that I am not unlovable and am worthy of great...

TW: Binge eating, eating disorder, depression, anxiety, religion, severe depressive episode, suicide ideation. Dear Reader, The other day my chiropractor asked me a question about gratitude.  It's one that comes up for many as we approach the holiday season. Interesting fact- the word holiday comes from an Old English word  hāligdæg-  holy day.  Anyway, I digress... she asked me if I wanted to know how to be more grateful.  A priest had been in to get adjusted and she had asked him how we become more grateful.  His answer was to imagine everyone you love and everything you enjoy gone, then you will experience gratitude. I don't have to imagine.  All I need to do is remember...   I began treatment for an eating disorder in April of 2020.  As I started to heal, I no longer wanted to binge.  On the most basic level, I had been using food to numb emotions I had never learned how to label and deal with in a helpful way.  Without the...

 TW: Religious trauma, religion, eating disorder, and abuse. Dear readers, I am writing this post in response to a sermon I recently heard.  I am over two months into recovery from an eating disorder and one of the self care habits I am trying to integrate is allowing myself to take up space.  Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  It is my practice. Have you ever been around someone who seems to have nothing good to say about life?  If you have children, think back to moments (or days, weeks, months) when nothing seems to be going their way and it feels like they just won't stop whining.  Consider with me periods of time in your own life is full of chaos and it's a battle from the moment you get up to the time you go to sleep.  Often sleep isn't even a relief because my awesome brain "thinks" it needs to work things out in the form of dreams while I'm just lying in bed trying so very hard to get some rest.  I've woken up before overwhelmed ...