"YCED"

My friends and I debating if the fact that someone from the Crisis team told a Jewish student to stop being jewish was funny (because its shows ignorance) or offensive when I realised I went through the same thing.

YCED restored my weight but didn’t fix my mind.

When I became anorexic I always felt like I was never good enough. I was always trying to me liked, and seeking approval. I was raised in a Jewish household, so following all the commandments, and trying to please G-d was important.

I became eating disordered and found myself in the FREED program. YCED came up with a meal plan that broke all the kosher laws, they adjusted it it was a bit better all the meals were kosher.

I tried to follow it, but being a student it did not work. After meat I have to wait 6 hours before eating dairy…this meant if I started a meal late, or took too long eating the previous meal I couldn’t have the next meal or drink if it contained dairy.

Everyone involved in my care was really kind, but they just did not understand. I tried to make it easier by asking for a completely vegetarian meal plan(so timing does not matter) but my therapist said I could not exclude food groups. I spoke to the rabbi. Who said that my health is important, and I should do everything to get better, but breaking kosher rules to have pizza for dinner was not an emergency treatment for a life threatening illness.

I was not prepared to upset G-d, but all the food groups, close timings, and my faith was a recipe for disaster. I was struggling with the guilt of not eating enough, and the guilt of not keeping kosher, and no one at YCED realised what was happening.

I gained weight, said the right things and got discharged. I still struggle today because I did not learn how to be healthy and religious.

If anyone at LYPFT is listening….Judaism has lots of rules, you don’t need to know all of them, but try to work within them. Asking patients to break the commandments because staff think it is beneficial will be distressing.