As empty as her plate

How could I not fall in love?

All the things I loved, just seemed to leave

But this didn’t,

So, tell me; how could I not fall in love?

How could I not fall in love?

When all that people told me was

How great I looked,

They said I was inspiring,

They said I was encouraging.

So, tell me; how could I not fall in love?

Just like those posts of models on Instagram,

My eyes too had a filter.

But unlike sepia or Valencia,

Mine projected a prism of numbers.

They say games are played to be won,

But I was playing starvation

The only thing I feared

more than death itself, was food.

And every night as I ran my fingers

along the cave between the blade of my pelvic bones,

and thanked the girls who complimented my collar bones,

all I could think of was- ‘you’re still not skinny enough’.

Society urges us to stay slim,

People around me found it hard to restrict

those numbers on a scale.

But I, I was a winner, I felt like a winner

Because, although my stomach growled and my back ached;

At least I could still maintain my weight.

So, when the happy began to fade,

And my hands began to shake,

My eyes filled with tears,

And my breath became faster paced,

My shrine, the scale still smiled back

So, you tell me- how could I not fall in love?

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, with nearly 1 person dying every hour as a direct result of an eating disorder.

Over 70 percent of those who suffer with eating disorders will not seek treatment due to stigma, misconceptions, lack of education, diagnosis and lack of access to care.

Help spread awareness. Help save a life.