The Butterfly Foundation’s #ChangeThePicture campaign aims to target young people’s physical dissatisfaction.

“It’s a shared, quiet language that looks like we have, and doesn’t require a lot of words to express each other,” Mia Findley, 33, tells 9Honey.

Eating disorder recovery coaches discuss anorexia nervosa and silence, which often masks psychological illness with the highest mortality rate in Australia.

Having experienced many eating disorders throughout his life, from bulimia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and ultimately anorexia nervosa, Findley says the stereotypes we attach to illness make it difficult to fight them.

Relation: “My mother told me the words that helped me fight my eating disorder.”

“I didn’t fit the anorexia nervosa stereotype. I didn’t seem to have anorexia nervosa.” Beyond the body The founder explains.

“It’s so alienated because you feel like a scammer or fake.”

Findley says the factor “perfect storm” caused her fight, reflecting the moment she was bullied about her body in high school.

Findley recalls being harassed by a group of boys on the beach at the age of 15 and being “harassed” by her appearance.

“I felt a bright red hatred for myself,” she says, looking back at the moment.

“My internalized message was that it was my responsibility to avoid shame and it was the way to do it, so I had to be in a smaller body to do it. . “

Relation: A frank new podcast series aimed at condemning eating disorders

Findlay launched an eating disorder treatment program three and a half years ago after starting to share a YouTube video that frankly discussed the fight against eating disorders.

During the years she has run the service, Findlay has found that despite its very large population, the various ways in which eating disorders can manifest remain misunderstood.

“Access to treatment in this country is one of the worst in the world. It’s terrible,” she says.

Relation: “I was hospitalized 25 times due to loss of appetite”: New Eating Disorder Study Test “Genetic” Element

“There is no long-term plan for people to recover. We are not ready to help people negotiate what could be a lifelong battle.”

This week, Australia opened its first housing facility to treat eating disorders on the Sunshine Coast.

Owned and operated by the Butterfly Foundation, a 13-bed private hospital called Wandinerida provides 24-hour mental health support and treatment. One-third of the hospital’s 35 staff experienced eating disorders.

Since the announcement, we have received more than 600 inquiries regarding admission possibilities. This demand is not surprising in a pandemic situation where calls to the Butterfly Foundation helpline increased by 57% across Australia.

Findlay acknowledges that the country’s approach to the treatment of mental illness has been “significantly improved” and received an additional 27.9 million government funding this year, providing inpatient housing with a positive impetus for the treatment of mental illness. Pointed out to show.

“The new facility will provide continuous evidence that continuous and coordinated treatments will work,” she explains.

Relation: “I felt abandoned and isolated”: Women share an eating disorder and a dark fight in the Australian countryside

“You have all these systems that make it impossible for people to understand how complex and serious these psychoses are, and they are psychoses, because we are wealthy teenage whites. It’s not just because only good women have useless belief systems and stereotypes that suffer from it. “

In her coaching program, Findlay focuses more than achieving a “healthy weight” with clients, digging deeper into the potential effects of eating disorders.

She points out how to partner with the 2021 Butterfly Foundation’s #ChangethePicture campaign to discuss our perception of beauty and our childhood image as a major cause of eating disorders.

“We are motivated to demonstrate a larger body and put a smaller body on the pedestal with the same breath,” says Findlay.

“We have the fitness, diet, beauty, fashion and media industries and motivate us to sell the message that our bodies are wrong. We have been small since we were young. Is taught what is good and what is big is bad. “

Helen Bird, Education Coordinator for the Butterfly Foundation, told 9Honey that the #ChangethePicture campaign focused on “prevention” and noted that schools’ eating disorder education services increased by 300% during the pandemic. ..

“The demand for preventive resources is skyrocketing. Body image has always been a problem, but the strength of the message has a big impact on the image of young people,” she explains.

“We are trying to change things because we know that young people who are struggling are much more likely to bring it into their later lives.”

Hoping to build a “brighter generation,” the campaign seeks to unravel the image of a “perfect” body by neutralizing the way in which it discusses appearance from an early age.

“We are changing the story we give ourselves when we are young,” says Bird, taking advantage of the effects of physical dissatisfaction on the lasting behavior of eating disorders.

“If you can avoid labeling food as good or bad, always comment on people’s appearance, and put that energy into their personal qualities and attributes, their value has nothing to do with their appearance. Gives the young man the message that there is no label, “she says.

“They are more than their bodies. The more we talk about it, the more important we make it.”

Findlay reflects Bird’s emotions and advises people to think about how to deal with their loved ones when it comes to body images.

“If you ask people who know us the top three they like about us, our appearance is barely on the list. That’s something about our personality,” she said. Says.

“But that’s not what we say to each other first. We want to enhance the look, which is what we value most.”

Eating disorder coaches say it’s only a matter of time before the message of self-esteem changes to “respect someone as a person, not an incoming container.”

“Everything is wrong with the messages sent to you by peers, parents and the media,” she added.

“We should be, but the problem is not the body we are in, but the way we talk about them.”

For more information on how to click #ChangeThePicture Here..

If you need assistance with an eating disorder or body image problem, please contact us at: ButterflyNational Helpline on 1800 33 4673 (1800 ED HOPE) or [email protected]; 1300 55023 Eating Disorder Victoria Helpline