Quiet the Noise
There are 750,000 people in Australia who experience a highly distressing eating disorder voice or noise in their heads.
This noise will likely intensify over the holiday season.
It’s like an intruder in your mind, a relentless, overwhelming and unwanted noise telling a person what to eat and how to behave. It makes them feel worthless and desperate. It can increase the severity of an eating disorder.
Help us raise $50,000 to support Butterfly’s critical services, including our National Helpline, Support Groups and virtual Next Steps Outpatient Program.
People with lived experience helped us to create this video about the noise in their heads.
Sarah’s Story
Doctors told Sarah she should lose weight. They gave her weight loss medication and a restrictive meal plan. Sarah began starving herself and developed a life-threatening eating disorder.
She became extremely unwell. She saw dozens of health professionals in a desperate attempt to get help, but was told that her weight loss was a good thing.
Less and less able to cope, she lost her job, her home, and Child Safety removed her child from her care. “I lost everything,” she says.
Sarah was hospitalised more than a dozen times. She would be admitted then released, only to be back in hospital again within weeks.
She describes the noise in her head as non-stop. “One minute it’s telling you ‘you’re fat, awful, ugly, a failure’. And the next minute, it says, ‘But if you do what I say, I can help you’. It promises you the world.”
Sadly, Sarah’s experience is not isolated. In fact, more than 1 million Australians are battling an eating disorder, and less than a quarter of them are receiving the help that they need.
The good news is that Butterfly is here to help. We’re here for Sarah and her recovery.
Our support programs provide tools, resources and professional support to #QuietTheNoise. Help us to help every person struggling with an eating disorder.
“It’s like having a relentless perpetrator in your head. One minute, it’s screaming at you; the next, it’s promising you the world, trying to get you to do what it wants.” – Sarah
Did you know?
- Over 1 million Australians are living with an eating disorder, but less than a quarter of those are receiving treatment or support
- In Australia, eating disorders kill more people each year than the national road toll
- The number of people reaching out to Butterfly’s Helpline over the holiday period has increased by 32% since 2019
- Research shows that eating disorder self-talk plays a crucial role in the development and maintenance of disordered eating behaviours
- The power inherent in the eating disorder voice or noise has been linked to the high rate of relapse
- Stressful life events, such as Christmas, have been shown to lead to increased risk of relapse
- During summer, when warmer weather means wearing less clothes and more attention on the body, there is an increase in the severity of eating disorders including hospital admissions
- We urgently need your donations so we can continue to provide critical support before the relentless noise of an eating disorder takes over a person’s mental and physical health.
Butterfly is here with recovery programs for anyone experiencing a body image issue or eating disorder. Donate to keep our work alive.
“My eating disorder noise was completely isolating. It was all consuming; a deafening cacophony of shame, anxiety, and hopelessness. And for a long time, I thought that noise was all I would ever hear.
Recovery, to me, has meant quieting the eating disorder noise by learning to hear the other noise. The noise of joy, art, love, hope and above all strength”. – Mia
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