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Episode 021: Ashlyn Carter – Saved from an Eating Disorder
Ashlyn is a copywriter and marketing strategist, specializing in the wedding and creative industries. She works with clients like Jenna Kutcher, Katelyn James, Hilary Rushford, Lara Casey and more. Ashlyn lives in Atlanta and convinces her husband (and baby boy) to go with her to grab margaritas and tacos weekly.
Five years ago, she faced the fact that she had an eating disorder.
At the time, Ashlyn says she was addicted to work and started an eating plan that turned into an obsession.
“Everything else was sand between my fingertips, it just was something to control.”
She was rapidly losing weight. She was petrified to be around groups of people. “The social anxiety was out of this world,” and that triggered depression.
Two weeks before her wedding, her parents confronted her.
Then, she told her fiance what was going on.
“I liked my eating disorder. I liked being in control, at least I thought. I thought this was all under my thumb. I was the one calling the shots on this.”
Ashlyn made it through her wedding but then faced recovery.
At 27-years old, she went into hospitalization. “I couldn’t understand why we couldn’t pray our way out of this. I felt so alone. I felt a lot of shame.”
Ashlyn shares more about eating disorders, in general. What she thinks drives women into them and how God delivered her out of hers.
“It was probably the hardest work I’ve ever done.”
“I remember feeling the Lord say, ‘That is in the past. That is not your identity. We are moving on.’”
We talked about what checkpoints and help Ashlyn has created in her life, still to this day, so she doesn’t relapse.
She shared some red flags for women potentially facing an eating disorder and advice for families and friends of a loved one going through this.
Listen in here to Episode 021. Know someone else who could use this episode in her life? Tell her you’re thinking about her and love her and that you have something you know will encourage her today <3
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Links from the show
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
Connect with Ashlyn Carter
Connect with Becky
