Resources

Dear LGF Community,  

My name is Camryn. For as long as I can remember, my mind and body felt at war. Growing up as an intense soccer player, I believed I had to look a certain way to be worthy. By my teens, that belief became an obsession. At the age of 17 years old, my parents were concerned about the state of my body and took me to the hospital where I was admitted with a low resting heart rate and later diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. 

I spent months in the hospital to stabilize my heart at an inpatient eating disorder unit. During this time, I struggled with intense feelings of despair and a crushing sense of hopelessness. While I completed the program and was discharged physically healthy, mentally, I was still struggling. I relapsed immediately and my disorder of restriction turned to purging. My obsession with being lean consumed my worth. In the years that followed, I relied on coping strategies that included substances with unhealthy eating patterns to manage emotional pain.  

In 2020, with the help of my parents I became an inpatient at the Looking Glass Residence. The treatment program there gave me a glimpse of recovery, but the struggle continued. By 2023, after repeated hospitalizations and hitting countless rock bottoms, I entered a rehab center on Vancouver Island. There, learning to stay sober, I finally began to heal. I started seeing the eating disorder as the enemy — not myself. 

Today, I’m almost three years sober and free from the behaviors that once ruled my life. Recovery isn’t a finish line but a daily practice. For me, it means living, not just surviving — accepting myself as I am and using my story to help others fight the battle, I once thought I’d lose. 

I am honored to share my journey with you as well as be one of the 2025 recipients to receive the Reflections scholarship. This scholarship will allow me to continue my academic and professional journey as I pursue social work. I hope to specialize in supporting individuals facing eating disorders, substance use, and complex trauma, particularly youth and marginalized communities. I want to offer the kind of compassionate, patient support that I once needed—someone who sees the person beyond the struggle and reminds them that they matter, they’re not broken, and they’re not alone. 

My lived experience has shaped my commitment to trauma-informed, equity-centered, and culturally responsive care. With this support, I am moving closer to becoming a social worker who leads with compassion, integrity, and the transformative power of human connection, giving others the support that was so meaningful in my own journey.