Eating disorder walk highlights recovery
An eating disorder had Danielle Gaio in its sinister grip, and it wasn’t going to let go without a fight.
The 22-year-old St. Catharines woman was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 15 when her family lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She told dozens of people gathered at the inaugural Niagara Eating Disorders Awareness Walk at Oakes Park in Niagara Falls on Sunday that seeing her weight plummet gave her a misguided sense of control.
In fact, it was anorexia — a mental health disorder that compels people to lose weight through methods such as intense exercise or starving themselves — that had control.
“It started out as me just wanting to get in shape, but slowly it just took over,” she said. “That’s what this disorder does.
“I thought I loved having this disorder because it seemed like my only friend,” said Gaio, who organized the awareness walk along with fellow eating-disorder survivor Bailea Watt of Fonthill.
“I felt like I was in control and it was something I didn’t want to lose.”
She cycled in and out of treatment centres, but nothing seemed to work.
“I lost any fight in me or (the) will to get better,” she said.
Luckily for Gaio, friends and family, who were also at the walk, stuck with her through the darkest times.
“I truly don’t know if I’d be standing here today without all of you,” she said. “Not one you ever gave up on me even through some of my toughest moments. You fought for me when I didn’t want to fight for myself.”
Watt, 22, and a survivor of bulimia as a teen, said she hoped the walk will help publicize the fact that Niagara’s Pathstone Mental Health and the National Eating Disorder Information Centre in Toronto have important supports
for those with eating disorders. Pathstone, Niagara’s child mental health agency, has walk-in clinics with single one-on-one sessions with a Pathstone mental health therapist without the need for an appointment or health card.
Both agencies were chosen as recipients of funds raised at the walk.
Pathstone CEO Shaun Baylis said eating disorders carry the highest death toll of all mental health conditions, due to elevated suicide risk and medical complications such as cardiac arrest and stroke.
Gaio finally accepted that her life was at stake because of the eating disorder she was battling.
“I eventually learned that some kind of recovery needed to happen in order for me to stay alive and live the life I knew I deserved,” she said.
Treating eating disorders is complicated, but Gaio said she’s living proof that recovery is possible.
“Since I gained control over myself I’ve graduated from university, bought a house and fallen in love with the love of my life, and I’m very happy,” she said.
“It’s about living life to the fullest and knowing that recovery is a positive thing,” said Gaio. “We want everyone to know that suffering from an eating disorder doesn’t make you different or weird — it makes you stronger.”
Randi Bowslaugh, who owns a fitness club in Welland, took part in the walk to show support for the vital importance of combating eating disorders.
“Mental illness is a big issue with people, and it goes hand in hand with eating disorders,” she said.