Glennon Doyle, bestselling author of Untamed, has opened up about her recent diagnosis with anorexia on her podcast, We Can Do Hard Things.
Sharing with her listeners, Glennon shares news about her recent visit to the doctor, to seek help after relapsing in bulimia, which she had battled with nearly 20 years ago.
“I said [to doctors], ‘I am a bulimic and I have been recovered and I am having relapses, and I just need to understand how to get these relapses of my bulimia under control so I can be less scared and freer and not in danger.'”
After being examined by doctors and having her medical history assessed, Glennon was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. According to the Mayo Clinic, anorexia is an eating disorder characterised by an unusually low body weight coupled with extreme fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of weight.
Overcome with shock, denial and confusion, Glennon candidly opens up how the diagnosis has rattled her.
“The shift of my identity as bulimic, bulimic, bulimic… anorexia is a totally different thing…”
“It’s like a different religion. It’s a different identity. It’s a different way of thinking. It’s so confusing and it shook me very deeply. And I did not believe it.””
Despite the troubling diagnosis, the 46-year-old has taken to learning more about the disorder.
“It was stunning to be a person whose life and work is about self-examination, is about discovering the nuance and minutiae of who we are and talking about it every day and then not know this information about yourself. It’s humiliating on a level.”
She continued:
“I don’t know how to explain the feeling of reading things that you thought were part of your personality and who you were, and reading that they’re actually just a collection of symptoms, of an effing disease.”
In a post on Instagram, the author Glennon shares her decision to open up about her road to recovery from the get-go.
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“I’m not waiting to speak until I have my ‘tada’ moment because if I do, I’ll never speak.”
She ended:
“This year, we are going to be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway.”
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Feature Image: Getty
