As an experience expert, Miriam knows the very best what is needed in the fight against an eating disorder. Three years ago she set up ‘Recovery Boxes’, in collaboration with her therapist Isabelle Plasmeijer. “It must be worth continuing to fight against that voice. That will not work if you run out of bright spots,” she tells EditieNL. And due to the corona crisis, those bright spots are a lot more scarce.
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Limitations
A day trip to the zoo or amusement park is often not relaxing for people with eating disorders, explains Miriam. “You are stressed because you have to eat out, you feel watched and the urge to move increases.”
That is why the boxes with different themes have become her project. “Everyone can use them: in the clinic, the hospital or at home. And you can spread the bright spots over a few days, when you’re ready,” she says.
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Since the outbreak of the corona virus, Miriam has been a lot busier. “You also feel that you are more limited in what you can do. People with an eating disorder are already limited, but now completely. Few visits to clinics, hospital and home isolation do not help,” she explains. As a result, the number of orders for the boxes has risen sharply in the past year.
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An eating disorder yourself
Miriam herself also suffers from an eating disorder. She has been admitted to hospital and clinic a number of times. “I often had to wait for a place in the clinic. I would have liked to have had a box myself.” That is her biggest motivation: “There is no light at the end of the tunnel, then you sometimes ask yourself: why am I still doing this?”
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Making the Recovery Boxes is also a bright spot for Miriam herself: “It is a kind of daytime activity, so that I am less bothered by the voices in my head.”
Her initiative is now a great success, she makes an average of four or five boxes a week. In total she has six different themes for the boxes, such as reading or beauty. A box costs fifteen euros including shipping. For the content it is therefore almost completely dependent on sponsors and donations.
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