This Winter (Solitaire, #0.5)

by Alice Oseman

They think eating disorders and mental illnesses can just be fixed at the drop of a hat. They don’t understand that it’s a process. That it takes time and treatment and effort and bad days and good days.

‘I just … wanted to have a nice day,’ I say, and I feel myself welling up again. ‘Okay,’ he says, slinging an arm round my shoulders and walking me out of his room, then kissing me on the top of the head. ‘Let’s do that, then.’

‘I think sometimes,’ says Nick, ‘you’re so scared of being a burden that it makes you terrified to ask for help. But you have lots of people around you that would be there for you, if you opened up about what help you need.’

But maybe this whole ‘recovery’ thing could be a little easier if I reached out to people every now and then.