#6 Bulimia, Anorexia, and Mental Health

Community, Episodes, Health, Identity, Testimony

October 12, 2020

I am so excited to introduce you guys to Vanessa Amaro! Vanessa is sweet and kind and has a passion for encouraging women through her own personal testimony. We talk about body image, health, comparison, and how God patiently walked with her through Anorexia and Bulimia. This is a sensitive topic and so many women struggle with self esteem, body image, and beauty standards of today. Sharing stories is something I value so much on the show and I am both in awe and inspired by Vanessa sharing her testimony today. I hope you guys feel the same, so get ready, cause here is my conversation with Vanessa.

get ready to learn about:

Mental Health
Comparison
Bulimia and Anorexia
How to support our friends in this
Self Esteem and Body Image
SO MUCH MORE

links from this episode:

Tough Curiosity
Vanessa’s Article
Come Matter Here by Hannah Brencher
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

quotes mentioned:

Vanessa:

“I believe that my struggles and pain were not just some vain walk that I had to walk through but in fact they had a purpose. And that purpose is to bring hope to others. “

“And as I share about my eating disorder, I want to disclose that each individual’s experience is different.”

“As my eating disorder got to its peak, I did not have the relationship that I have now with Jesus, While I was in the trenches of my eating disorder, I believed in Jesus, I loved him, but I thought that he wouldn’t approve of this part of my life so I “hid” it from Him.”

“Comparison just fed into the battle that was in my mind that I was already tirelessly fighting day in and day out. I was already putting my self-image down on my own so comparison just brought more destruction”

“Community is so important. I would encourage someone who is listening if you know someone who is struggling with an eating disorder… don’t stop loving them, you will never understand what they are going though, stop trying to change them but never stop loving them.”

“There is something about being in the presence of our Creator. If we allow ourselves to let go and untangle our pain and struggle in front of our creator, only He can rebuild and restore all that was lost in darkness. It took me a while to be so honest with God but once I started being honest that’s when true healing started.”

“I would challenge my younger self, who are you becoming in this season and focus on that instead of the destination!”

“In the Bible, in the book of romans it talks about renewing your mind, renewing your thoughts and I believe that we can only be truly transformed by the renewing of our mind through prayer and constant communication with Jesus.”