Katies Story

The passion behind the project. Why am I here?

Hi, I’m Katie. I love to write. I love people. And I have a pretty relentless habit of questioning the systems we are told to trust. I’ve always been someone who thinks deeply, asks too many questions, and struggles to look away when something feels wrong. I’m passionate about people and causes, especially when the people who are supposed to be helped by a system are the ones being failed by it.

That is what brings me here.

I began treatment for my eating disorder in March of 2024, desperate to find a way out of a lifetime of restriction and compensation. But my eating disorder began long before I ever found specialized support. I grew up surrounded by diet culture, food rules, restriction, and pressure to exercise. From a young age, I was trying to understand my brain, intellectualize my thoughts, and solve what was happening inside of me. When I finally sought treatment, I trusted the system completely. I wanted to get better. I wanted to live. I followed the plans, showed up, and went to residential treatment. I did everything I believed I was supposed to do.

And yet, I remained incredibly sick.

Eventually, I found myself questioning something I had never thought to question before: what if the system I'm trusting isn't working for me? After years of treatment, a relapse, a hospital visit, a 2nd failed stay in residential care and finally finding treatment that worked... I began to understand just how dangerous the gap between professional expectations and lived experience can be. That experience changed the way I see healthcare, mental health care, and systems in general. It also changed the way I see my own voice.

I don't write because I have all the answers. I write because I have questions and because I care deeply. Because I notice things and because I don't believe that being a patient, a person in a system, or simply someone who doesn't have all the power means you should stop questioning.

This blog is where I get to do that.

I'll be writing about eating disorder care, mental health, healthcare, social systems, people, power, and whatever else I can't stop thinking about. Some of it will be personal. Some of it will be uncomfortable. And some of it will challenge the things we've been taught to accept.

I just believe we need more space to ask why.

So, welcome to Katie's Files!

-Katie <3