‘Becoming fat saved my life’

After years of struggling with body dysmorphia, U.K.-based blogger Danica Marjanovic went from a size 10 to a size 16.

Body dysmorphia, according to the organization Eating Disorder Hope, can be seen through a variety of symptoms; among them are “body-checking, negative body talk and an obsession with real or perceived physical flaws.”

For Danica, those red flags were very real daily occurrences. As she treated her body dysmorphic disorder, she went from a size 10 to a size 16 — and finally, for the first time in a long time, she started to feel healthy again.

Unfortunately, her happiness didn’t matter to many people in her online audience. She regularly received negative comments from followers urging her to work out or eat less.

Tired of people shaming her for gaining weight, Danica decided to speak out against those critiquing her lifestyle, saying that “becoming fat” saved her life.

“I can’t tell you how many fake health concerns/bullying/ body shaming comments I get that start with ‘I am all for self-love but you should be working out to love your body,’” she wrote on Instagram.

“Would you tell an underweight anorexic patient in the early stages of recovery to start exercising to prove she loves herself? No. Just because my body does not conform to society’s standards of an eating disorder recovery body does not mean I am not overcoming a serious issue with restricting my food,” she wrote.

After she posted, Danica’s followers were quick to support her and thank her for her honesty. Some even went as far as to admit gaining weight had also helped them take back their own lives.

“After tons of intensive therapy I have my health and sanity back, but I also gained weight. I feel like I should be ashamed of my chubby body, but I can’t say that I am…the freedom of not being in the grip of an eating disorder is glorious!” wrote one follower.

“People want me to be ashamed of my weight gain and sure maybe I don’t have the ideal plus body or recovering body, but damn I feel better and stronger. I will be proud,” added another.

“No one has the right to then use their ill-informed, ignorant judgment to tell me how I should or shouldn’t be showing love to my body. You have not even a slight idea how far I’ve come with my relationship with food and exercise,” she wrote.

“My page isn’t just showing you how to be confident it’s about showing you how I have faced my biggest fear in life and turned it into something beautiful.”

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