The World According to Mark

By Mark Tabola

So, for some time now, I've been working on how to write about this one article I found on the BBC News website.  This article touched on a couple of topics that really got my attention, and I've kind of been slowly turning this over in my head ever since, as I'm trying to sort out what to say about it.  The article was from February and is entitled: Bryony Gordon: 'Recovering from food addiction is like walking a tiger.'  

The author wrote a book in 2016 entitled "Mad Girl," in which she goes through all she struggled with while fighting with obsessive compulsive disorder.  But she noted that it wasn't just that, but a host of other things all working as part of the mental situation she was dealing with.  So, the author shares that people think that because you wrote a book about triumph over OCD, you've won, and it's over.  But that isn't the case, and the path isn't straight nor clear; it's rather messy.  

But for this woman, it wasn't just one thing... It was a series of issues.  And the brain just gets to work looking for ways to deal with the issues, and suddenly you find yourself doing things that aren't the best for you. In her case, not drinking, but binge eating.  But it was also a lot more than that...And in the end, the result was that by eating, it was a means to try to feel better.

"It's a soul issue," Bryony summarizes in the end.  I will finish with this snippet from the article:   "People with mental illness, do feel shame. So, it is being able to see that we are suffering from an illness and it is not a moral failing. All organs misfire. We expect that. But for some reason the only one we judge is our brain."