Staff featured in the video (in order of appearance):
- Daisy King, Counsellor
Daisy King
My name is Daisy King and I’m a counsellor at Start2Stop. I’m an eating disorder specialist, so I mostly work with eating disorder clients. I run the eating disorder groups here at Start2Stop but I also work a lot with neurodiversity and addiction.
The work we do in eating disorder groups is mostly around disordered eating. We treat anorexia, bulimia, diabulimia, binge eating disorder, a lot of body image issues, especially in women.
The interplay of addiction in eating disorders, there’s a big overlap, especially in women. The reasons why I think that happens, why there are pathways exist between addiction and eating disorders, is because addictions are mostly rooted in emotional issues. It’s never just about drugs and alcohol or food or about behaviours. It’s always about changing the way you feel, dealing with wounds, trauma, anxiety, mental health. If you have those issues and you start off with eating disorders as a way of managing it maybe earlier in life. Actually this is my experience, I started off with an eating disorder and later, it became drugs and alcohol, just to kind of treat the same emotional wounds.
The transformation I see is why I do the job. You see people come in who have spent years struggling with addiction, eating disorders, the coping mechanisms they’ve used have just been destroying their lives. We see transformations that are just mind-blowing. We see people come to terms with their bodies, start developing healthy relationships with food, working with other people, building connections, fellowship, learning how to accept themselves and overcoming a lot of shame as well.
There’s no shame in it. There are so many people out there who want to accept you and who will care for you, and you can find a home in recovery.
To someone who’s struggling with the shame of where their addiction or eating disorder has taken them, I’d also say there’s no judgment from us. People from Start2Stop, from people who understand you, counsellors who’ve been through the same things. It’s something that’s not a cross to bear for the rest of your life. It’s something you can actually overcome, and you get actually a lot stronger through moving past it and moving through it and overcoming that adversity.
If you would like to find out more about Eating Disorders and Addiction and how Start 2 Stop can help then please get in touch here.