A CALL FOR ADVOCACY

While Allison Kreiger Walsh enjoys her duties as a wife, her rewarding career, and being an advocate for people with eating disorders, nothing is more fulfilling than spending time with her 17-month-old daughter, Madison. They take walks together, shop together, and sing together.

“The best day of my life was the day my daughter was born,” Allison says.

Many moms have uttered those exact words, but for Allison, bringing a child into this world was a significant feat. As a high school freshman in 1997, she had blossomed into the ‘all-American’ girl who was beautiful and excelled academically and athletically. Unfortunately, her desire to achieve perfection in all facets of life marked the beginning of a horrific three-and-a-half year battle with bulimia and anorexia.

Although a team of specialists helped her overcome these debilitating diseases, she endured numerous side effects — tooth decay, hair loss, acid reflux, shingles, busted blood vessels in her eyes, and a tear in her stomach. Worst of all, her menstruation cycles stopped, leaving her unsure whether she would ever be able to conceive and have a baby.

“I went to a reproductive medicine specialist and was put on hormone replacement therapy,” she says. “That helped me a lot.”

Since overcoming her battle, Allison has been blessed. She won the title of Miss Florida in 2006, graduated law school from Florida A&M University, and married her caring husband, Brian, in 2009. She is now gainfully employed at Umatilla-based Recovery Village, a 67,000 square-foot facility that treats people struggling with bulimia and anorexia, as well as addiction and mental health problems. Allison relishes her role as a voice of hope.

“If you live through something like this, it is your responsibility to help others who are struggling,” she says. “Although recovery is a long road, enjoying your life again is absolutely possible. I’m a breathing, living example.”

Knowing that family history is a risk factor for bulimia and anorexia, she does not want to see Madison endure the same fate. “As a mother, I am going to empower her and equip her with the necessary tools so she won’t have to go through those struggles like I did.”

ALLISON SUGGESTS WATCHING FOR THE FOLLOWING SIGNS OF AN EATING DISORDER:

• Self-starvation

• Hiding food

• Going to the bathroom immediately after a meal

• Use of laxatives

• Excessive exercising

• Tooth deterioration