Testimony of Healing May 16, 2016 Issue

Eating disorder overcome

Angela Sage Larsen

Not long after graduating from college, I stopped eating. I would go for days at a time on one small meal or just some crackers and water, and I quickly dropped an extraordinary amount of weight. Unfortunately, when friends expressed concern, I took it as a compliment, thinking, “Too thin = attractive.” I was a diligent student of Christian Science, active in my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and prayed daily for myself, but I refused to pray about the extreme weight loss. I didn’t think it needed to be addressed in prayer. In fact, just the opposite: I was quite proud of the way things were.

One night I fell asleep in front of the television while watching a show. I was awakened later by a news program detailing symptoms associated with anorexia. Before I could turn off the TV, the list of symptoms caught my attention because they were things I’d been needing to find relief from, including extreme hair loss. I was shocked. In that instant, I saw the error of my ways. I had been identifying with the weight loss as somehow being part of me and as beneficial.

After a few days, I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me because I still wasn’t eating much, and the disease seemed to have a grip on me. The practitioner did pray for me; he gave me Christian Science treatment, and he also told me that I should eat three meals a day whether I was hungry or not; he wanted to be sure I did this.

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