Music has not only been something in the background for me to listen to or to sing along with it has also helped me through hardships in life. In 2013 I was dangerously ill with the most undiscussed and rarely understood mental illness called Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is the leading cause of death in all Mental illnesses. I was unhappy, I wasn’t singing in the shower, I wasn’t writing anymore, I wasn’t myself.
I dropped dangerously low to 34kgs at my worst and ended up in hospital for basically half the year with medical admissions lasting months on end. This was the hardest thing I have ever gone through in my life. Through the distorted perception I had of beauty and self-worth I destroyed my body to try and fit what I thought was the perfect criteria
. It was not. There is no such thing. While in hospital I was always thinking and always feeling lost. One day something happened I was sitting and watching TV with the other young girls in the treatment centre I was in and Katy Perry popped on screen she was talking about her up and coming tour and about herself in general and I had always loved her as an artist but that day she brought back what I had lost and that was my passion for music all because she was getting interviewed and said these exact words which I will forever carry with me.
“I think it is important to see and for young girls to see that you don’t need to be perfect to achieve your dreams”
“Thank you for believing in my weirdness”
This for some reason made something in my mind click and think…. “I’m going to have a listen to Katy Perry” which I then went off and did and before I knew it I felt that smile that sense of freedom that happiness that I had lost through the depths of my Eating Disorder.