Should there be specialist eating disorder clinics for athletes?

Eating disorders is such a heated topic in many sports, and the reason why people, like me, struggle to come to terms with accepting help from mental health specialists. The idea of possibly accepting inpatient treatment without the ability to run really made an impact on my recovery, as I couldn’t imagine not running as that was not only my passion at the time, but a coping mechanism to escape the illness which had taken ahold of me. For many runners, the idea that ‘lighter is faster’ became such a focus in order to develop in an athletic career, but creates such a controversial impact on both physical and mental performance and recovery.

Running from the age of 10, I looked at the sport as a passion, yet at 16 years old when I was diagnosed and referred to an eating disorder unit, my love for running remained and I was determined more than ever to achieve quality performances in both 5k/10k and cross country races. Many of the professionals I have seen in my 3years of attempting to recover, they have referred my running as a way that ‘Anna’ has tricked me into a way in which I must train in order to compensate for meal times and any form of calorie intake I had that day. Yes, part of that is true and I’m not going to lie. I did use my running as a way to burn off calories in order to lose weight, and still do, but my main focus was that I was seeing a vast improvement in my performance, and began to achieve the ‘athletic figure’ I as a teenage girl had always desired to have.

When I was at my lowest, competing and training was very challenging as I struggled to fuel myself properly for such a demanding sport. Id go for runs and training sessions without any food, and struggle to eat after in order to recover. But the other factor which effect me was the weather. After doing my usual warm-up, athletes are funnelled into a start where there is no ‘turning back’. Id race in my usual shorts and crop top, but having to stand in close to sub 0 temperatures, it made my warm up a useless process. But of course at the time, I didn’t realise that, I was just absolutely frozen, and yet convinced I was absolutely fine as I saw myself  the same as all the other girls in my age group. This is because I had a body distorted image however never got the help I needed to focus towards a healthy athletic figure, just a generalised figure focused around BMI and ‘curves’.

That is why I think UKAthletics and England Athletics should introduce specialised units for athletes beginning to, or currently struggle with an eating disorder. It shouldn’t just be for your coach to deal with, and even training partners to feel they need to help! They aren’t trained to support mental health. Yes I think they should have the ability to attend courses of recognising and supporting athletes with eating disorders. There should a place for up and coming athletes of all ages to feel they will be understood as an athlete, not just an exercise addict because of mental health. I feel that there should be even just one day patient and inpatient for athletes who struggle with anorexia/bulimia, but can still train in a way to maintain their passion in an environment which they feel understood and help aid recovery. Nutrition courses and a reason to recover focused around the sport, showing the different impacts and restrictions eating disorders cause and effect so many athletes. I have seen so many girls in my age group suffer with what I believe anorexia, and having to deal with it myself is something I could never have possibly imagined. They come and go with injuries, but you can tell they are just so determined like me to take their passion to a higher level, but I find it hard to take heath professionals seriously when they say the first thing I need to do is quit running. Its not going to happen. If I was in an environment where I was around boys and girls exactly the same as me, budding athletes that can’t imagine not going out for a run, I would find my recovery so much easier to accept, and probably with the support of other athletes around me, begin to accept what ever way it takes to recover, it will benefit my running performance.

I have never had a good concept for money, I guess its from my parents tricking me and my brother into thinking this weirdly shaped tree at the bottom of our house was called the money tree, and said thats how they paid for things, but surely just £1 of all membership fees can be put into starting to raise money for a specialist ED unit in athletics be introduced. Somewhere where athletes struggling with their mental health can be encouraged to recover from a sport performance point of view. Wanting to better performance in athletes is such a diverse recipe, you can’t write a step by step guide on how to be the next Mo Farah, Paula Radcliffe or Michael Duane Johnson. Each individual is very much different. Different training plans and approaches work for different athletes, but at least having the support of others who have the same goal, same passion, will motivate and even help prevent a serious loss in the athletic world because they struggled to accept help as they where told to just ‘quit running’ in order to recover.