Letters to the Editor: Be aware of the symptoms of eating disorders
One reader says he is in recovery from an eating disorder and that 'until I finally admitted I had a problem I really didnât know anything about the signs, symptoms, etc.' Stock picture: iStock
With Eating Disorders Awareness Week coming up soon (February 26-March 3), and with so many stories related to food, exercise, and peopleâs views on what you should eat, I feel we should also be mindful of eating disorders.
One thing that I would really like to see would be some advice on eating disorder supports available when publishing stories about diet plans or stories on such things like âhealthy eatingâ for the want of a better term or exercising advice stories etcâŠ
I am in recovery from an eating disorder and until I finally admitted I had a problem I really didnât know anything about the signs, symptoms, etc.
My story goes back many years but, just taking the last 10 years, I started to do some running and over the years it developed into what I can only describe as a living hell.
Food and exercise dominated my life. Over the years, I dropped certain foods and increased my exercise to a level that nearly took me away from my family forever.
Eating disorder thoughts were with me every second of the day.
Eventually I got so sick I found it hard to walk up the stairs. My memory was gone so bad I would struggle to recall the most basic things. At the end I had nothing left in me and just wanted to sleep.
I was lucky that I got help but unfortunately it was too late for me to do anything other than go into an eating disorder inpatient programme. I needed to come into hospital. I left my wife and four kids and began my journey to recovery.
The weeks and months after hospital are so hard because you have so much to deal with including trying to fill the gap that was once dominated by eating disorder thoughts. Iâve been receiving care and still do as itâs a long road and takes time and a lot of inner work.
I really think that if we can highlight signs and symptoms of eating disorders we can prevent so many people suffering, and that means the individual and their families.
When the early signs start, it might get people to check in with themselves and stop the eating disorder in its tracks.
I donât fit the stereotypical eating disorder sufferer. I am 42, male, with four kids. Eating disorders can affect anyone but maybe some people just donât recognise it at the start.
We need to highlight the destruction it causes and the lack of help available. I was lucky that I had health insurance but that shouldnât mean that I have the chance over anyone else.
In the last three years, we have had a series of reviews and a commission on defence followed by setting up of a capability defence unit. There is also talk of a national security strategy.Â
It seems to me that we should be past talking and should now quantify the means we need to defend this State and consolidate its security in all dimensions of land, sea, and air.
As a former naval person, I can see most of our immediate threats will come by sea and air. We need to concentrate on coastal and sea defence by 24-hour surveillance and have means to deal with offensive drones, guided munitions, and strikes from ship-borne units.
Our fleet needs an injection of at least tier two warships such as at least three modern corvettes, a mine countermeasures system, a multi-role vessel (MRV) with replenishment capability, four conventional submarines, and a naval air unit with anti-submarine warfare capability to operate from the MRV and corvettes.
Putting this capability together will require training and assistance at EU level.
When has Northern Ireland ever been fully integrated into the rest of the United Kingdom anyway? Never. But for some reason goods checks have now become a central issue and determining factor in Northern Irelandâs place in the union.
There was a big push in the 1980s-1990s for full political integration for NI, with calls for the main political parties in Britain to contest elections in NI. This area of integration wasnât deemed necessary.Â
The British political parties didnât have to organise here. NI could still be part of the union without this essential feature. Too many careers on the line. An end to the gravy train for many politicians whose main battle cry was protecting the union.Â
Such moves to full political integration within NI would have prioritised social and economic issues over the border-centric issue which was and still is causing divisions within NI.Â
No one was interested. But now goods having to be checked coming into NI from Britain is somehow the be all and end all in our place in the UK. All the recent angst and bluster from certain Unionist camps is more a political challenge to the status quo from the Unionist âoppositionâ rather than sincere anxiety over the future of the union.Â
They want to replace the present Unionist hierarchy. The NI public and the proper functioning of Stormont have been the downside to this attempted power play.
It is good news that extra buses are to serve Dublin Airport. But will they serve the suburbs such as Blanchardstown Shopping Centre? And the entire Dublin 15 area?
There was a private bus serving Blanchardstown Shopping Centre up to a few years ago. It gave a great and necessary service. And it had good custom. I donât know why it stopped but this bus service needs to be reintroduced.
As well as Irish citizens using it, thereâs a hugh number of immigrants here in Blanchardstown and the entire Dublin 15 area, who would use it.
The car traffic in this area is extreme. So it would be nonsense, wasteful, and incompetent if the buses were to serve just OâConnell St and the airport.
Jennifer Horgan ('If men donât read fiction that builds empathy, we have a problem' Opinion, February 16) serves up a mish-mash of tired tropes about men and their empathic deficits.
One wonders how vast was her surveyed research in terms of numbers of men interviewed or encountered. She has obviously based most of her personal tally on the men who read, or rather donât read, female authors. That should cover it... not!
Itâs a facile, nay puerile, perspective that a member of one gender can be so arrogantly presumptuous about the innate proclivities of another, despite the blatant and boring fallacy of such self-imbued generalisations.
Vive les hommes empathiques et sympathiques.
I wish Irish âcelebrityâ chefs would wear the green jersey on television by actively promoting home-grown fruit and vegetables.
Irelandâs vegetable-growing acreage continues to decrease as vegetable farmers, who supply the most wholesome fresh produce, are unable to compete with the low-cost selling of imported vegetables.
Itâs high time to support home-grown produce to safeguard the sustainability of vegetable farms and the few remaining greengrocers. Irelandâs temperate climate enables vegetable growers to deliver a high quality yield year after year. Freshly-grown Irish produce is far healthier than its European alternative and is a natural source of nutrition.
The reliable Irish potato, meat or fish, supported by two or three homegrown vegetables, has long been the traditional Irish dinner. Noodles, rice, spaghetti, pasta, or couscous are a poor substitute for the spud. When I was growing up, potatoes and vegetables were served every day in some form.
My mother regularly sent me down to the genial Tom Galvinâs greengrocer, where an effervescent fragrance of natural freshness wafted out the door.
The shop was a colourful montage of home-grown produce including carrots, parsnips, cauliflowers, cabbages, turnips, onions, apples, pears, plums, rhubarb, raspberries, and strawberries.
Tom was especially proud of his potatoes â the early Queens and Roosters and the later Golden Wonders and Kerrâs Pinks.
âHowâre the spuds this year, Tom,â Iâd respectfully ask.
âBalls of flour, Billy boy, balls of flour, the best in Ireland,â was the standard reply.
The complimentary apple âto keep the doctor awayâ went down a treat on the way home!
