Is this blog actually of any use in the wider scheme of things, I wonder...

Ever get the feeling that you are a tiny drop in a massive ocean? Yesterday, while I was trawling around the internet for the latest news on eating disorders, it suddenly hit me that - year upon year - we read reports about avoidable failures in eating disorder treatment, promised funding that never seems to materialise at grass roots level, failures of governments to take eating disorders seriously, media interest in eating disorders at times like Eating Disorders Awareness Week but at no other time, and - worst of all - deaths that should never have been allowed to happen.


Sometimes it seems as if nothing has changed and it's the same old merry-go-round year after year. And at times like these I really wonder whether minuscule activities like my blog are doing any good.

I feel like a grain of sand in the Sahara.

I know that, in reality, it's a case of lots of tiny ripples adding up to a tsunami. None of us can Change The World as individuals, but we can do our tiny bit to help to raise awareness and create change. Collectively, I hope, this adds up to quite a lot.

But when I see the same old stuff being reported year after year... when I hear the same accounts of avoidable tragedies, lack of awareness and understanding, and terrified families facing situations that are beyond their wildest nightmares... I get so disheartened.

I have always said that the primary purpose of this blog is to help other families to identify the symptoms of eating disorders in boys and get prompt, evidence-based help. The other purpose is to help raise awareness of the fact that boys and men get eating disorders, just like girls and women.

And I know this blog has helped some families.

But it doesn't stop me from being disheartened on occasions and wondering if, after blogging here for seven years (since January 2011), I'm simply writing stuff that no-one will ever read - and that my activities are so tiny and minuscule that they couldn't possibly be of any use in the wider scheme of things.