Who is this girl
and
why are we
“rocking our bodies?”
Both valid questions.
I am Hayden Mitzlaff, a 26 year old with an M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate in the state of OH and KY. I am a mental health advocate and an eating disorder recovery warrior. I am a counselor, a daughter, a sister, a partner, a friend and fitness instructor.
But more importantly, I am human. A human who finds joy and healing in connection. A human who hopes to help others find joy and healing in connection as well.
The birth of “Rock Yo Body” came as I was seeking a creative outlet to share my experiences as well as establish a community for those struggling with body image, disordered eating and any mental health issue. I created the Rock Yo Body instagram page in 2020 and haven’t looked back since. Dozens of posts later, I decided to create the Rock Yo Bod Pod podcast, a space where we engage in necessary conversations normalizing and destigmatizing mental health struggles.
Whether you’ve landed on this site to buy a cute sweatshirt (which you totally should), you’re wanting to check out some podcast episodes or you’re seeking counseling services — I hope you find what you’re looking for. And if you’re lost, maybe stick around for a sec.
Mental health is health.
Love y’all.
“We are all born so beautiful.
The greatest tragedy is being convinced we are not.”
— Rupi Kauer
“The moments where recovery feels the most painful are often the ones you are making the most progress, because it indicates you are actively challenging your demons. Keep on pushing forward even when the eating disorder voice screams at you. Things tend to scream when dying.”
“When you stop trying to control food, it stops controlling you”
“Girls developed eating disorders when our culture developed a standard of beauty that they couldn’t obtain by being healthy. When unnatural thinness became attractive, girls did unnatural things to be thin. ”
Why should we be talking about eating disorders and body image?
Many people struggling with eating disorders may not look like they’re struggling. In today’s society, we equate eating disorders with extreme thinness. While this can be accurate in some cases, this fails to recognize thousands of other individuals struggling with disordered eating whose BMI is not clinically low.
Did you know the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has 8 different diagnoses for eating disorders? While Anorexia is the most widely known, eating disorders involve much more than limiting one’s caloric intake and sustaining a low body weight.
This means that the signs of an eating disorder are not always visible. The notion that eating disorders are confined to an appearance discourages many eating disorder victims from seeking the psychological and health services they need. This notion discourages many survivors from sharing their stories. This notion discourages intervention and prevention of these debilitating mental illnesses.
There is no way to adequately represent the internal chaos within someone struggling with an eating disorder. The havoc an eating disorder wreaks on one’s life is not represented by a low BMI or body weight.
No matter what you’re struggling with, visible or not, you are not alone. And you don’t have to appear “sick enough” to seek help.