To mark Eating Disorder Awareness Week, East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) is sharing a letter to people who are struggling with eating disorders. It was written by someone who has been helped to recover by a new service model that the AHSN is supporting across the region to see patients more quickly.

Dear Human,

I'm so sorry for the place you are in right now. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and definitely physically. I have been in that bad place. And, now, I am free of it. 

I never thought a year ago I would be able to say this. Not only because I had so far to come. But because I wasn't even aware that there was anything wrong with me.

The first step, in my experience, is to admit that you need help. And if you are reading this from one of your group sessions - you have already completed this step. Which is a huge achievement.

Taking the time, energy, commitment, courage and self-care you need to combat this disorder will take everything you've got; it will consume you - but, I would rather consume myself in recovery and messages of self-love than be consumed by my body-dysmorphic thoughts and when my next binge will be.

I have come from the same place you have. And out the other side. Like I know you will be able to do.

My disorder has ruined my digestive system, exacerbated my depression and anxiety, caused me ongoing heart palpitations, has crippled my knees for life (from excessive exercise) and has lost me a lot of friends and made me miss out on so many opportunities.

Which breaks my heart. But the worst thing it did - was to make me lose sight of who I am.

I am not my weight. I am not how flat my stomach is. I am not how much I work out. I am not a size 4. I am not the person looking back at me in the mirror in my worst episodes.

I am a whole, beautiful human with so much more to do with my life than to hate myself every day.

This group taught me love, kindness and compassion for others. But more importantly, for myself.

You are whole and beautiful and have so much to do with your life - these people will help you realise this if you let them.

Well done on the first step. Only a few more to go.

The powerful words were written by someone who participated in a new eating disorder  programme for young people known as FREED (the First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders).  

The Academic Health Science Network is supporting trusts across the country to implement a FREED model within their eating disorder services and develop their existing pathways to treat young people, who are referred to their service with an early onset eating disorder, more quickly.

The AHSN Network is a unique network of 15 regional AHSN organisations with expertise in testing, evaluating and spreading innovation within the NHS and a specialist understanding of their local system and specific local needs. It is working in partnership with South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) and Kings College London (KCL) to lead the national scaling of FREED.

A two-year follow-up study on FREED, showed that patients who were treated for anorexia nervosa via FREED had better weight outcomes and reduced need for day/inpatient care, compared to patients that were treated via standard care pathways.

The AHSN Network, nationally, is working with 33 eating disorder services who have adopted FREED and supporting implementation at a further 12 Trusts who anticipate launching their FREED service by Summer 2022.

In the East Midlands, the FREED model has been rolled out in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland and Northamptonshire; with Lincolnshire and Derbyshire planning to introduce the FREED model to their services from April 2022.

The model enables rapid access to specialised treatment for 16 to 25-year-olds who have had an eating disorder for three years or less. It gives special attention to challenges young people face during these years of their life.

It emphasises early, pro-active engagement; early symptom change; family involvement; attention to the effects of eating disorders on the brain; attention to social media use; and attention to transitions (out of school, to university, into work) and ‘emerging adulthood’. 

FREED operates as a ‘service within a service’. It complements, rather than replaces, existing eating disorder services and treatments, to provide the most appropriate care and reduce waiting times.

For more information, visit: our webpage and https://freedfromed.co.uk/