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"CAUSE: The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is a non-profit organization that offers support to individuals and families impacted by eating disorders. Through campaigning for prevention, facilitating access to treatment, and conducting research, NEDA helps people better understand what causes eating disorders and how treatment can save lives. NEDA hosts fundraising walks around the country to unite survivors and rally communities. Christina Grasso, a NEDA volunteer who organizes speaking engagements and charity fashions, is walking for the first time in NEDA&amp;#39;s New York walk on October 7.\n\nGET INVOLVED: Participate in an upcoming NEDA walk around the country, or help Christina reach her personal fundraising goal of $500.\n\n&amp;quot;I started battling an eating disorder when I was twelve years old, and I kept silent about it for almost ten years. It was something that nobody saw coming from me because I have this amazing, supportive family. I had nobody to look up to who was speaking out about eating disorders, so I thought that staying silent was the way to go until I was in college. When I was a junior, my disorder spiraled out of control and I ended up in an inpatient unit for three months last summer. It was there that I really got well and made strides.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;I went to an all-women&amp;#39;s college in Indiana, and there was little support for students struggling with these issues. It&amp;#39;s sad that it&amp;#39;s become almost &amp;#39;normal&amp;#39; for girls to struggle with body images issues on a lower level of severity, and it becomes a real problem when it affects day-to-day life. One of the first warning signs of an eating disorder is when someone is organizing his or her day around eating or ercising, and becoming isolated from social activities.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;I moved to New York two months after I got discharged, and I&amp;#39;ve since been involved with the National Eating Disorders Association as a volunteer speaker to high school students, and I&amp;#39;ve also organized charity fashion shows. I&amp;#39;d like to speak to people in eating disorder recovery units, but I might wait until I&amp;#39;m a little further along in my recover. It&amp;#39;s something I want to get to do eventually.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;Whenever the topic of eating disorders comes up, people tend to automatically place the blame on someone or something instead of taking initiative to do something to problem solve. This is a problem with no straightforward solution, and instead of playing the blame-game, we have to ask ourselves, is there something that we can do differently? That&amp;#39;s where my voice comes into play. Silence kills, and I know because I kept silent for ten years, and that almost killed me. It&amp;#39;s not easy to be the one to speak up, but my desire to experience change in my lifetime is larger than my preference for privacy or my concerns of what others may think of me. I want people to know that an eating disorder is a biological illness, not a fad. It&amp;#39;s not to be taken lightly, and it&amp;#39;s also nothing to be ashamed of.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;This is my first time participating in NEDA&amp;#39;s annual walk. It&amp;#39;s symbolic for me because last summer, right before I was admitted to treatment, I was told by my doctor that I would not be able to handle living in New York. That was my incentive to get better. I feel like I&amp;#39;m coming full circle.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;NEDA&amp;#39;s mission is to increase awareness of eating disorders and offer tools for assistance\u2014programs, events, and hotlines. NEDA is trying to make resources available for schools, parents, coaches, and doctors so that people can have a better understanding and dispel misconceptions. One of NEDA&amp;#39;s messages that I&amp;#39;m trying to convey is that it&amp;#39;s really important to see that eating disorders are a widespread issue that affects people of all different walks of life. There&amp;#39;s no certain &amp;#39;look&amp;#39; to someone who has this problem. I have friends who have almost died and are a completely &amp;#39;normal&amp;#39; weight, so awareness is key.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;I&amp;#39;ve been successfully maintaining my own recovery, which is something that I wasn&amp;#39;t sure I could do, but I&amp;#39;ve been able to show myself and others in my situation that eating disorders can be fought. You can still move forward and achieve your goals. I have two options: I can continue to fight my disorder while achieving my goals and working towards what I want in my life, or I can spend the rest of my life in and out of treatment centers and hospitals. And the latter I have to say would be easier just because it&amp;#39;s the absence of fighting. I&amp;#39;ve done both, and I can confidently say that the fighting is worth it. That option doesn&amp;#39;t become apparent until further down the road in one&amp;#39;s recovery, but that&amp;#39;s what I hope to share with anyone who&amp;#39;s willing to listen.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/christina-grasso-national-eating-disorder-association>