3 Things 'To the Bone' Taught Me About Mental Health

As someone who lives with a mental disorder, the Netflix original movie “To the Bone” caught my attention. Having briefly read that this movie was about self-acceptance and recovery, I wanted to know things that could change the way I deal with my own disorder. I wanted to know what this story could teach me. I wanted to learn. So here are the top three things I learned from the movie that I hope can benefit you, too.

1. Only we can decide how we want to see our lives.

I believe we can choose to see our lives as good or bad. Life is, for sure, scary. It’s full of uncertainties and unpredictabilities, but it is also filled with wonder and joy. Good can be found anywhere and anytime, if only we choose to see it.

2. We can’t change the future, but we can change our behavior towards it.

Bad things will always happen and we can’t always do anything about it, but I believe we can do something about how we deal with our problems. Life will always throw us issues we don’t want to face and I believe it’s up to us whether we want to solve them or let them control our lives.

3. In order for things to change, we first have to want to change.

We are the ones who have to take an initiative to make things different because no one can change us but ourselves. We can’t expect others to do the work for us, we have to fight for our own lives.

Knowing that we can take back our lives if we want to was a very important lesson for me, as sometimes it’s just so easy to want to give up power to my disorder. What “To the Bone” has reminded me is I have to keep on fighting or else I will lose the battle. We all have to keep on fighting and remember we are not alone in this seemingly endless struggle. But I can assure you it does get better as long as you keep on fighting. Just remember we are warriors. We are strong and we are resilient.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, you can call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237.

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Screenshot via Netflix YouTube channel.