From Storm to Serenity - by Toby Walzer

amother

Gold

Sat, Nov 21 2020, 9:50 pm

Buy it. You have nothing to lose.
My story: in high school, life got to me (I always had things going on but pushed them aside, pretended things were perfect.... til I crashed) I was depressed and had anxiety (would describe it as needing everything to be perfect- neat, organized..... to an unhealthy level) what started as disordered eating turned into an eating disorder in seminary and I was cutting myself almost daily. I was in and out of therapy and it didn’t help me Sad

In seminary, I finally was sticking to therapy and seeing a nutritionist but felt too down to care enough about changing. I didn’t want to go on meds (therapist wanted me to) and I didn’t want to go to therapy more often (I was paying myself and couldn’t afford it)
I came across this book chanuka time and bought it. I argues through every. Single. Page. I didn’t think anything made sense or that Tobys story was possible. I let the book slide as one person who was an exception to the rules of life. A few days later, I was sitting on a long bus ride and I started to think about the book, and it suddenly made sense. I was a new person overnight. I suddenly was more motivated, had more energy, was able to ride out my emotions and not let things drag me to down. I started eating in a heathy and normal way, I stopped cutting, after a few weeks I stopped therapy and was doing amazing.
It’s been a few years now and life is challenging. Many times, I feel like I’m going back to the dark place I was in, but there’s this little voice inside me that reminds me of everything I learnt, and even when I can’t see how it makes sense, I’m able to hold on to my sanity until the feelings pass. For The first few months, my struggles with eating/cutting resurfaced a lot, but over time that slowed down. My first pregnancy has been very challenging and there’s no way I would be able to handle it if not for what I’ve learnt. There were a few times I told my husband I’m depressed, I should get help etc. but knowing what I do I ride it out and feel fine after and it passes.
I highly highly recommend this book for obvious reasons. I will say, I have friends who I suggested reading this book and it changed their lives. Other friends who worked hard in therapy and really spent time internalizing theories and ultimately got better that way, have a harder time with the concepts because it’s hard to accept that things could’ve been easier after working so hard. I still think it’s worth reading for everyone. Even if you aren’t struggling