. I know this is a long read but it gives an example to my point. When I was a teenager my best friend and I both had an eating disorder. I had anorexia and she had bulimia.

We didn't do it together though, i came out and told her and then she told me. It wasn't a pact thing, our friendship grew deeper though because we understood eachother.

Okay, fallscreek. I bet you know what that is. If you dont, it's a massive Christian summer camp and thousands of people go each year.

At this time, I was better with my eating disorder. She wasn't.

We went to different churches but our churches went at the same time.

Her church was smaller, it didn't take long for the "counselors" to notice she wasn't eating, or that she'd inhale her food and run off to the bathroom. They made her sit at the table after lunch and would NOT let her get up without eating her food. She wouldn't do it. So because she wouldn't eat her food they punished her. She couldn't leave the cabin. She had to stay in by herself while everyone else went out for free time. The counselors gossiped about her to the other teenagers and to eachother. Totally outcasted her.

They NEVER contacted her parents. It's hard af to get cell service out there and I thought she'd blown me off because we had planned to meet at the tabernacle to spend free time together. I walked up a hill and texted her. A few hours later she texted back telling me everything. She told me she was really upset and that they scolded her to the point of tears and that she wanted to leave.

My uncle was the pastor of my church. He was at fallscreek with us. But he Was staying in an RV pretty far from us. So i told my group leader to contact him for me and she did and he showed up almost immediately. I asked him if there was anyway we could transfer her to our cabin and be with our church and I told him why. My uncle called her parents, who were of course LIVID because of the way she had been treated. Her parents called their church leader and told them they were picking her up. Her parents knew about her ED and she had been in treatment the week before and they thought fallscreek was a good place for her to go when she got out of treatment. But instead it was a horrible experience for her. My uncle suggested to her parents that she just get transferred.

They agreed. So he sent our youth pastor out on a golf cart buggy thing and he came back with her and all of her stuff😂 idk that was funny to me.

But being with me and in our group, she ate what I ate, we had a lot of options, from fruit salads to pasta. I didn't eat that much but I ate well enough. And I was with her 24/7, she got bunked with me. She didn't throw up the entire time and I told her I was proud of her. She also got to talk to one of our counselors who didn't use shaming. She's gotten soooo much better as I have too. She's had to have surgery to fix her Teeth and a hole in her intestines and is healthy now living a good life.

But seriously, shaming a mental illness doesn't work. Shaming in general DOESNT WORK. It's proven. I just wanted to get that out there. If you come across someone with a mental disorder, does self harm in any way. do not shame them. Instead, encourage them to get better and support them through that. Also, making someone feel forced or actually forcing them isn't going to get them anywhere. I'm done now lol

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