“It was my biggest secret.”
The voice of mother-of-four Annie Jones wavers slightly but her emotions manage to stay below the surface as she calmly recounts the day her life changed after struggling with a debilitating eating disorder (ED) for almost 30 years.
The 47-year-old is now in recovery from anorexia and is spreading the message of hope to others who may be going through similar painful journeys as a result of a vast array of eating disorders.
She generously shared her story as Sunshine Coast charity endED officially opened its House of Hope and Peaceful Park on a hectare property at West Woombye today.
Eighteen months in the making, House of Hope is Australia’s first step-up/step-down facility to assist those suffering with EDs back into community life, as well as delivering enough support to mitigate the need for a full residential stay and offering space for allied health professionals to visit.
The surrounding community-built Peaceful Park – with its yoga decks, tranquil water features and stream, plus vegetable and herb gardens – will offer serenity and space to recover.
The park already hosts bi-monthly community events and all community groups working in the mental health sector are invited to use its leafy surrounds.
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endED co-founder Mark Forbes is naturally proud of the property and described the official opening as “marking another milestone in support for ED sufferers”.
He has been fielding inquiries from potential clients from all around Australia.
Ms Jones is one of the clients endED has already helped through its support services, which include eight lived-experience recovery counsellors.
She is forever grateful for a simple email and follow-up phone call from endED one Sunday when she was desperate for help.
“I have struggled with that debilitating eating disorder for most of my life. I would say 25-30 years,” Ms Jones said.
“I was just thinking, ‘Why can’t I find joy in anything anymore? I feel like I’m an observer of my life. I can’t enjoy my children (three daughters and a son). I have to recover for them.’
“And I remember the moment – I was sitting in my car. I was sobbing.
“I felt hopeless.”
Ms Jones said her children were the catalyst to finally seek the support and medical attention she needed to recover.
She mustered all her courage to broach her suspicions of an eating disorder with a doctor.
Some general screening questions were asked, but the doctor failed to diagnose her properly.
Ms Jones now realises that many health professionals aren’t trained in recognising the symptoms and signs of the vast range of EDs.
Another four months later, while in the grips of a significant episode of restrictive eating, she took the bravest step of her life.
She had been familiar with endED, which has put together the world’s largest podcast collection covering eating disorders – a valuable support tool and resource library viewed to date in 134 countries with over 130,000 downloads.
Ms Jones was impressed and encouraged at the frank interviews with guests, who unapologetically and openly talk about their eating disorders, offering their own special ‘life-changing’ and healing words.
So, she reached out with “this rambling message to the abyss” on the endED website contact page.
“It wasn’t to anyone in particular,” she said.
“I described in detail the symptoms that I was experiencing.
“I said, ‘I think I have an eating disorder. It is ruining my life. I’m struggling. I can’t go on.’
“And I’ll never forget the last sentence of that email. It was: ‘Please help me. I really need some help.’”
Ms Jones admits she was amazed to receive a reply email from Mr Forbes that same afternoon.
“Within an hour or two of me sending that email, he responded and validated everything that I had said, told me that the things that I was doing were common and he told me that he could help me and gave me hope,” Ms Jones said.
“I just went to pieces. I was just in such a bad place with everything at that time.
“Then Millie (one of the recovery coaches) contacted me that same night on a Sunday and told me I was really brave for reaching out.
“She told me that it’s not easy when I had held this secret for nearly 30 years.
“My husband didn’t know. Nobody knew. I was a master at disguising it.”
While she was unable to access counselling at that time, the hope expressed in the email and phone call were all she needed in that moment.
“It changed the trajectory of what happened for me next. Within that week, I went back to my doctor and I told him everything that I had told them.
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“I had a diagnosis really within that same week and started treatment.
“Now I am enjoying freedom that I had not thought possible for me.
“But there are so many women my age struggling with eating disorders who may never get help, who may never reach out.
“There is so much shame and stigma attached to eating disorders, especially at my age with children.
“You’re thinking: ‘How am I ever going to tell everyone I’ve struggled?’
“That’s the message I would like to see: it doesn’t matter how long you’ve had it. Recovery is possible.”
Mr Forbes said he and wife Gay had battled for “20-something years” alongside their two daughters, who both were diagnosed with EDs.
In the beginning, they were frustrated with the lack of support available anywhere in Australia, apart from the critical care found in hospitals.
So they decided to do something about it.
The charity they started, bolstered by community help and sponsorship, as well as federal government grant funding, has seen the establishment of Wandi Nerida – a 10-hectare, semi-rural sanctuary and Australia’s first residential eating disorder facility at Mooloolah.
Now the House of Hope and Peaceful Park add more layers of support.
“We built Australia’s first residential facility two years ago, but we always knew we needed a step-up/step-down support house as well as that,” Mr Forbes said.
“Our daughters have put us on this journey, I suppose. So, it’s a very personal journey but it’s very rewarding and fulfilling, too, when you see the differences being made.”
The endED story
- Sunshine Coast-based endED is an organisation that offers support, education and community for people experiencing eating disorders or issues with eating.
- endED founded and established Australia’s first residential support facility known as Wandi Nerida, which is now operated by Butterfly Foundation at Mooloolah.
- endED’s full House of Hope program will include: support groups run on a daily basis Monday to Friday; and space for allied health services (such as psych, nutritionists, dieticians, masseurs) so that those people attending the support groups can see health professionals all in the one place.
- Adding their support to today’s opening were: Carolyn Costin – an endED patron who founded the residential model of care in the US about 30 years ago (endED introduced the Costin model of recovery coaching to Australia); and Kath Cadman, who first came into contact with endED through her former roles as care navigator and later manager of the federally funded Sunshine Coast Eating Disorder Access Trial, delivered in partnership with Central Queensland Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast Primary Network and Butterfly Foundation between 2019-2022. That was Australia’s largest real-world eating disorder research trial, whose aim was to improve access to treatment in the community for ED sufferers.
