It’s laborious to pinpoint the second Ellie Hampson developed disordered consuming and train.
Her sheer desperation to be drafted into the AFLW made her play by way of an ankle harm in 2019, however when her physique lastly gave method she grew to become fixated on energy and riddled with ideas that any weight acquire whereas sidelined would break her profession.
She nonetheless achieved her dream of changing into drafted to the Gold Coast Suns, however within the course of inflicted a stress response harm in her shin and extra foot points.
So, whereas her Suns teammates have been working laborious on the monitor and within the fitness center, the midfielder was on the sidelines fearing any extra energy would put her additional behind.
In precise reality, lack of energy solely elevated her restoration time.
“There have been a few conversations right here and there about what my consuming was like, and I form of fluffed over it,” Hampson mentioned.
“Then I realised that (consuming) was really the difficulty and it wasn’t one thing I might simply change (personal my very own).
“I really wanted to mentally make some modifications by way of psychologists and physios to truly imagine that this (restoration) was going to assist me.”
Hampson performed simply seven video games in her first two AFLW seasons as she slowly got here to phrases together with her disordered consuming and incapacity to gas her physique for restoration.
“Enter and output of energy was an enormous factor since you’re not operating or coaching as a lot as folks round you, you’re making an attempt to drag (energy) again.
“In the meantime, your physique wants that to restore.
“You’re caught on this mindset that, ‘That is serving to me, not consuming sufficient or taking out carbs goes to assist me’, when in actuality it’s not.”
Generally the one factor holding her consuming was figuring out that if she didn’t, her job may very well be in danger.
“There are days the place there may very well be stuff you don’t wish to eat, otherwise you attempt to not eat that, however on the finish of the day if you happen to don’t you move out at coaching, so you must,” she mentioned.
“You’ve received to alter these wired in your mind to permit that data to sink in.
“That took a very long time and continues to be mending now.”
However Hampson’s psychological harm developed years earlier than her bodily one, first revealing itself in highschool when the dichotomy between an athlete and a standard teenage woman started to kind.
In a single a part of her life, she needed to be the final word athlete – “the strongest, the fittest and the quickest”; in one other, she needed to appear like everybody else.
“I used to be in all probability in denial for years, (I advised myself) it was regular, everybody had a little bit of physique picture points, after which after I accepted that it was affecting my profession I realised I wanted to take it extra critically and search skilled assist.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ELLIE HAMPSON
Initially revealed as AFLW prospect Ellie Hampson’s draft desperation sparked disordered consuming hell
