Happy #WarriorWednesday! Meet Meagan Connley, an introvert, highly sensitive person, cat mom, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. She is sharing her #iAM1N5 journey of living with anxiety and her experience with depression and eating disorders. Meagan remembers her eating disorder starting in high school. Her parents noticed a change in her behavior and appearance, and they got help for her. She started feeling better until graduating college. After college, Meagan realized she was feeling a lot of stress and anger and that she felt resentful, defensive, and easily irritated a lot of the time. She would worry over things that hadn’t even happened yet, and she realized she had anxiety. As her anxiety got worse, her eating disorder resurfaced. She felt like she couldn’t control her mind, so she believed the only thing she could control was her weight. Her eating disorder was at its extreme on her 30th birthday, and she realized she needed to get help and that her disorder was controlling her.
Meagan reached out to a nutritionist to learn how to live healthier. Her nutritionist helped her learn how to slow down and take back control of her life. She practiced yoga, rediscovered foods she hadn’t eaten in years, and began learning more about herself. As she continued this journey of healing, Meagan realized self-awareness was extremely important. She began recognizing the strengths of being an introvert. She also learned that she was a one, or perfectionist, on the enneagram chart. This journey of self-discovery was difficult but helped her understand who she is.