Bergen op Zoom’s Jiska Smeets (27) tries to balance on a post for six hours on Saturday. He does it during the Last Man Standing event on the Neude in Utrecht. He wants to draw attention to people with psychological disorders. Since 2013, Jiska herself has struggled with anorexia nervosa eating disorder. You want to show that recovery is possible. “I’m living proof that things can really work out.”
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Jiska, along with dozens of other attendees, want to do this The last man standing, to be an example to others, because she missed this a lot during her illness. “People talk too little about psychological problems.”
Saturday’s action is from the MIND interest group, which advocates for people with psychological disorders and makes their problems a topic of discussion. This can include depression, exhaustion, pressure to perform, and eating or anxiety disorders. MIND insists that mental health is just as important as physical health and therefore is organizing targeted campaigns such as Last Man Standing.
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Waiting for the privacy settings …
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And this is absolutely necessary, Jiska thinks. His problems started “innocently enough”. He loved food and never cared about his weight. “During the day anorexia– school lessons I thought: no, I’ll never have it! “
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“As a child I had many inexplicable fears”.
But it turned out differently. When Jiska moved into the rooms for her degree in International Lifestyle Studies, she developed feelings and emotions that she was unable to deal with. “As a child I had many inexplicable fears. Furthermore, I had a restless family situation and I was afraid of the future ”. She couldn’t extinguish these fears and so she developed her eating disorder of hers.
“I found my peace by counting calories, otherwise I would have panicked.” From one day to the next she decides to give up some products, such as pasta. “She made me a facility addict. It was hard work mentally, because I got lost. I immediately understood that he was wrong ”.
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“My body really took a beating.”
It was also rapidly deteriorating physically. She has lost a lot of muscle mass, causing her legs to limp. She lost her energy and started suffering from hair loss. “He got extreme pretty quickly. My body really took a beating, because of the competitive part of the eating disorder ”.
At one point, her family doctor referred her to Mental Health Care (GGZ). Interviews with psychologists and dieticians followed. “But because I was living alone, I continued to deteriorate.”
He then decided to undergo full-time treatment. Her recovery was accelerated, but after six months things went wrong. “I was back in weight, so I wanted to stop my treatment. I didn’t think about all the underlying problems, which quickly deteriorated it again. It was embarrassing when I went back to mental health care again, but I didn’t want to keep fighting for the rest of my life. “
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“I didn’t want to fall back into old habits.”
Eventually she came out on top, making clear deals with herself. This involved looking for points of motivation and reporting bad feelings in time. “I’ve loved life too much to give up an eating disorder. That’s why I didn’t want to fall back into old habits ”. She has been stable for several years now. She is married, has a one year old son and a good job. “Life always has ups and downs, but I feel comfortable in my own skin.”
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Jiska also tells her story in the service of the volunteer organization YOU. As an experienced expert, she has been helping others with eating disorders for four years. She also contributed to a book in which people with eating disorders share their experiences.
Standing on a pole for six hours on Saturday, Jiska wants to raise funds for hospitalization in Rotterdam, self-help groups and individual counseling for people with psychological disorders. “Ultimately, we want to create more attention and openness to psychological suffering.”
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