Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Stancoff.
Hi Katherine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
there is purpose in this pain began its journey in February 2022, created by a friend of mine who shared similar passions as I did: destigmatizing mental illnesses and deconstructing stereotypes surrounding people with mental illnesses. We both desired to publicly speak about what we cared for, so she opened a public account and shared the login with me. But after a short time, she handed over the account to me.
Once the profile was now in my ownership, my main intention with TIPITP was to recognize the link between suicidal ideation/actions and OCD. Absent-insight/delusional belief OCD was another topic I wanted to discuss, along with drug decriminalization. But then my eating disorder came close to taking my life. I had to spend quite a few months away from my smart phone while I went through intensive long-term treatment.
As much as treatment helped, I noticed some things that never truly got spoken about enough. It never seemed fair to me that we could easily discuss restriction as a behavior in group therapy, but not binging and/or purging – but especially not other forms of purging besides self-induced vomiting. It made me mad, everyone deserves to heal, validated, and recognized. It’s not just for us who have anorexia. I used to have bulimia, and if I were still struggling with it while I was in treatment, I don’t think I would’ve gotten a single thing out of it. There’s this silent hierarchy of behaviors and diagnoses within all the centers I’ve been to: anorexia at the top, then bulimia, then other-specified feeding/eating disorder (OSFED), then binging, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is left out.
But throughout these first four months of treatment, I got to really thinking about how I wanted to continue TIPITP. I knew I wanted to share my recovery, but I was hesitant. I didn’t fully know how to. And I didn’t have TikTok at the time, which made sharing my story on Reels more difficult (tricky software and less chances to make 100+ views).
With these things combined, I started a blog — my lovely and wonderful blog that I cherish so much: thereispurposeinthispain.com. I’ve always adored songwriting and poetry, writing essays, public speaking, and anything literary, which made a blog the perfect option for me to both be creative and spread the message of recovery.
Late 2023, I was back in treatment going through the hardest and most traumatic experiences of my life. I was desperate for my team to listen to me, which they did, but then came the desire for online validation. I posted sick photos, but it felt disingenuous, because I knew before and after body checks only feed the stereotypes and competed with others’ weights and “sick” bodies.
To this day, I’m still sharing parts of my eating disorder recovery on Tiktok, Instagram, my personal blog and also facilities’ and non-profits’ blogs. I am also an ambassador for Project Heal. While I’ve drifted away from sharing many detailed of my healing, I still adore talking about things like recovery content ethics, aforementioned ED behavior hierarchies in treatment, other forms of purging, surviving my suicidal ideations, poetry and music, DSM updates, hopeful and encouraging poetry, my fifth year of high school, separating self-worth and grades, neuroscience, story times, sobriety, and following new trends to share my story.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, figuring out how to create both cohesive/concise and appealing content that still includes my love for poetry and music was a real learning curve. Especially with TikTok and Reels, you’re just kind of thrown into the editing software, text options, and filming process and expected to know everything right away.
But what got in the way the most was the hate. Everyone always talks about it, but until you’ve lived through hundreds of comments telling you you’re better off dead because you can’t take an insensitive joke at the age of sixteen, I don’t think you get a say on whether or not online abuse is real or not. But I know how to handle it now: let it hurt, and let it pass. I’ll try to reason with the commenter, but if they’re completely closed-minded and willfully ignorant, there’s no point in engaging in a conversation anymore.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
While I am most known for my social media and blogging work, my creative work comes first. I have been singing and songwriting since I was about 11 years old, and now I am finishing the writing process of my debut EP/LP. I don’t post about it nearly as much as my mental health awareness and lectures, purely because I like to spend as much time perfecting my art as possible. Even with posting snippets of songs I’m working on, I get uneasy. I don’t like teasing; however, I do have one full song, “Overcome,” on my music account online, @katherinestancoff.
I started with fictional and concept music, but now I write poetic lyrics and melodies about my eating disorder and other struggles, growing up despite not believing I would, and utilizing Greek mythological figures to showcase my healing. As for melodies, I am a sucker for any major7 chord. And two personal skills of mine include syllable schemes and remembering my favorite synonyms. I have an entire bookmark on my laptop of words that I like.
Going back to social media and blogging, I just do my best to talk about more niche subjects within recovery and disordered spaces. My next lecture will be on TikTok comment “doctors,” aka teenagers who make blanket statements about ADHD and its medications.
How do you think about happiness?
Singing and songwriting are my favorite things in the whole world. Nothing compares to the catharsis and joy I feel when crafting lyrics through poetry and finding that one melody I had in mind for guitar and vocals. The debut EP/LP I mentioned above is incredibly despondent, reminiscent of my favorite artists, such as Daughter, Ex:Re, Ethel Cain, and Searows. Contrasting this anguish, the final song is based off my blog’s poem, “the algea” (Greek personifications of intense sorrow and grief), but ends up focusing on my recovery guided by other Greek personifications. This album is so precious to me, and I cannot wait to share it with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thereispurposeinthispain.wordpress.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereispurposeinthispain/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thereispurposeinthispain
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereispurposeinthispain , https://www.tiktok.com/@katherinestancoff
