I had been dealing with disordered eating since I was in my late teens, and by my 20s I was purging multiple times a week. I tried seeing a few therapists but none was the right fit, and I was surprised at the lack of knowledge that some of the therapists I confided in seemed to have about disordered eating patterns (one told me it “wasn’t like I was that skinny, anyway,” and another tried to psychoanalyse my purging patterns, convinced it had something to do with my relationship with my mother). I tried to manage my disordered eating on my own, and by the time I was 28 and training for a marathon, I stopped completely because I was afraid of the ramifications purging, combined with heavy exercise, would have on my body. As I became more interested in training for different races and trying workout challenges, I began to develop a more positive relationship with my body. By the time I was 30, I was convinced that my purging days were behind me.