Episode One: Overcoming Anorexia with Divine Guidance: Haley’s Journey
In the inaugural episode of 'Latter-day Miracles,' hosts Haley Hatch Freeman and Misty Smith introduce themselves and share the motivation behind launching the podcast. The episode focuses on Haley's personal story of overcoming anorexia, driven by divine inspiration and the support of her family. Haley discusses her journey through severe illness, a near-death experience, and the miraculous events that led to her recovery. She underscores the importance of faith, the reality of angels and miracles, and finding a new identity through passion. This powerful episode aims to inspire and offer hope to those facing similar challenges.
Haley Hatch Freeman
Trigger Warning: This episode talks about anorexia, shows a picture of Haley during her illness and briefly mentions suicidal tendencies.
There are no images of Haley at her lowest weight, this is after her month long stay at the hospital and after gaining 40 pounds.
A powerful moment for Haley was realizing thinner wasn’t always better.
Order books at https://www.haleyhfreeman.com/shop.html
Contact Our Guest
Find Haley Hatch Freeman on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haleyhf Instagram: @HaleyHFreeman
To book Haley to present at your event contact her at haleyhf@gmail.com or message her on social media.
To order books and learn more about Haley visit her website at www.haleyhfreeman.com
Transcript
Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Latter Day Miracles, where we share true stories of angels and marvels. Get ready to enjoy accounts from everyday people that remind us of divine love, that we're never truly alone, and the power of faith in these latter days. I'm Haley Hatch Freeman. And I'm Misty Smith. Sit back, open your heart and prepare to be inspired.
Haley Freeman: Hi, we are so excited to start this podcast. The first few episodes we're gonna tell a little bit about our stories so you can get to know us and we're just excited to be here with you guys and share some stories of miracles with you.
Misty Smith: Okay. So with today being our first day, we're going to talk about Haley's story.
. Okay. So Haley Hatch Freeman is the author of a highly acclaimed book, A Future For Tomorrow, which recounts her remarkable truth story. She has also written children's books, including from Head [00:01:00] to Tummy, the Simple Truth about Food, media Messages, self-worth, and real Beauty.
As well as her recent release, Lily's Reflection, a True Beauty Princess Story as a keynote speaker, Haley presents at women's conferences, schools, conventions, church groups, and more. She raises awareness of the devastating effects of eating disorders and provides insights in a uniquely valuable way as she is not only educated in this field, but has also experienced and overcome anorexia.
Additionally, she mentors women across the globe. Haley has three children and is married to her best friend, Brandon. I am so thrilled to share Haley's story with everyone, and I know that, she will leave us with inspirational and life changing messages. So before we get started into your story, can you first tell us why you decided to start?
Your [00:02:00] podcast?
Haley Freeman: Yes. Thanks for asking. Yeah, I've done other podcasts and shared my stories on them and, I thought that was gonna be good enough. I didn't think I'd have more to share. . I just started feeling more and more prompted that I needed to start my own podcast and share others people's stories of miracles and not just miracles, but stories of angels too.
And I had just started feeling more and more prompted to do that. And at first I was like, um, no thanks. Heaven Father uh, nope, I'm good. Um, that's like a big ask. You know, out of my comfort zone and I don't think I know how to do that. But I just started feeling more and more prompted to do that, and as I was praying about it and thinking is this really something you want from me?
I had one of the strongest physical manifestations of the spirit I've ever had. Actually the number one strongest ever had in my life
Misty Smith: Really?
Haley Freeman: Of where the spirit just physically just went through my whole body.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: To the point where [00:03:00] it shot me outta my chair
Misty Smith: Uhhuh
Haley Freeman: I'm telling you this is the second would be, when I knew I was done having children. Okay. And that was second to how strong of a testimony of the witness of this that I had that to doing this podcast. And so this was stronger physical, like rush of the spirit telling me I needed to do this podcast.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: After that, how could I tell Heavenly Father? Nope.
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: I'm good.
Misty Smith: You don't tell the Lord "no".
Haley Freeman: Yeah. So I'm like, okay. And so I just knew I needed to tell stories of other people's miracles and the number one thing that I kept feeling really impressed to why to do this
Is so other people knew what God could do and what he would do.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: For others in their life. And I think especially with all the hard times that we're facing as, these latter days go on.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: There's more and more trials and I think we need to know the miracles that he can and will do for us and what builds [00:04:00] testimonies stronger than seeing and knowing from other people what he has done.
I think just us everyday people, our neighbor next door, if we see what miracles he has done for them, then it builds our testimonies much stronger to know what we can ask of him to do for us.
One of my favorite quotes is from Jeffrey R.
Holland. I love him so much. In one of his quotes, I love it says. One of the things that we will become more important to our lives the longer we live, is the reality of angels, their work and their ministry. I refer to those more personal ministering angels who are with us and around us, empowered to help us and who do exactly that I believe we need to speak of and believe in and bear testimony of the ministering of angels more than we sometimes do.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: We know recently how he's talked about even. A near death experience that he has had. And he's just recently started talking more about that.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: And it's [00:05:00] real, it's real. Angels are real, miracles are real. And I want to testify of that. So that's why.
Misty Smith: That's incredible .
Haley Freeman: And I have felt very inspired to bring Misty along on this journey with me and I know you guys will love her.
Misty Smith: Oh, that's so sweet. Thanks Haley. So let's go ahead and, dive into your story, right? That's what this whole thing is about. This is what catapults you into here.
Haley Freeman: Yeah, absolutely. So I have written a book that tells my whole entire story, but I'll just tell what I feel prompted to share with you guys today.
So my book is called A Future for Tomorrow, which will tell everything. But it started out when I was 16 years old, I was just starting to feel this depression and darkness and feeling like I wasn't good enough.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: And thinking oh, like I had this crush on this boy that I was thinking like, oh, maybe he'll like me more if I was thinner or,
Misty Smith: oh, yeah.
Haley Freeman: You know, and just starting to think. Like those type of thoughts. And one thing with eating [00:06:00] disorders is they call it the 10 headed monster because mm-hmm.
It's not just one thing that triggers, eating disorder. It really takes at least 10 different factors that build it. And it's one of the hardest, psychological disorder to treat because it is so multilayered. So just one of those things was the depression. One of the things was the low self esteem.
There's just so many. One of the things is I happened to have braces put on my teeth. That year, and this was the summer after my freshman year in high school. And I started losing weight just because I wasn't able to eat as much. And people were giving me a lot of attention saying, oh, you look so good and you lost weight.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: I hate that comment. I hate those two sentences together. Like, why can't we just say you look so good? Like, yeah,
Misty Smith: it can make you feel good, but it also. It plays tricks to your mind a little bit .
Haley Freeman: Right? Why can't we just say, you,
you look so healthy, you look so pretty because you're, you color your look so good.
Or yeah [00:07:00] I hate those two together. You look so good. Have you lost weight? Like, ah, don't say that anymore. But anyway, that triggered, , a high. it became an addiction to hear that. And so that was another seed, one of those 10 monster heads of that disorder.
Okay. , and so that started to play into it, and
Then I started to feel really guilty when I would eat one piece of pizza, and I would feel so much guilt and remorse for eating, and I'd be like, why do I feel so awful and guilty? Like, I have sinned. Like I've committed an evil act.
Well, wait, I just ate pizza, so why? So? I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm gonna swear I'm gonna never eat. A piece of pizza ever again because I have to repent because I felt guilty and sinful when I ate that. And so repenting would mean to swear I'm never gonna do it again.
Misty Smith: Wow. Okay.
Haley Freeman: So I cut it out and it was so interesting how I connected almost religious, connection to eating.
I looked back at it [00:08:00] and what do you see on tv? Have you ever seen commercials saying. Guilt-free.
Misty Smith: Yes.
Haley Freeman: Ice cream?
Misty Smith: Yes.
Haley Freeman: Oh, it's guilt free. Why? Oh, 'cause it's fat free. Oh. Mm-hmm. So if I eat full- fat ice cream, I should feel guilty. Yeah. Or there's menus at restaurants that say, this is the guilt free menu, and it's because it's the lower fat, lower calorie side of the menu.
So what messages are we sending subliminally into our minds all the time? To our youth even, they're picking this up. So I internalized , that that meant eating this, these certain foods related to guilt and wrongdoing. 'cause I was a perfectionist again. Then another head on the monster was being perfectionist.
I wanted to always do right. I wanted to be pure and clean, and when I ate, I felt contaminated.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: So that's what, it started like this eating disorder, and it [00:09:00] just evolved from just not just eating the pizza, but then eating a sandwich or eating an entire apple, ugh. Started making me horrible, but maybe if I ate half the apple, I wouldn't feel so bad.
Misty Smith: Wow. Even an apple.
Haley Freeman: Yeah.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: Yeah. It just evolved and just got worse and worse, and then I was over exercising and. And so this eating disorder just started taking over my life. And it was just my obsession was everything. It was just, I couldn't stop thinking of anything else but what I ate and how much I'd exercised and just, it just was consuming my entire life.
I was doing so dramatically too, and I started out at just a normal healthy weight. Mm-hmm. And so I was losing weight too fast so in just a short amount of time, like about a, in about a year, I had lost half of my weight, which I started out with a normal weight.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: I was down to half of my weight, which was severely, severely, , anorexic, looking , horribly thin.
Misty Smith: I mean,
that's half of your weight is.
Haley Freeman: Yeah, when I'm supposed to be gaining weight, [00:10:00] 'cause I was
16, so I should have been gaining instead of lo losing . what happens with the brain is because our brain is made out of a lot of fat and it needs nutrients in our, lining in our nervous system and everything
it needs fat and oils to work. And without that, my brain started breaking down. I couldn't think as much and I couldn't think clearly. Then my hair was falling out and my skin was dying and sloughing off and, I was just getting so sick and my parents kept coming to me and saying, you need help.
You need help.
Mm-hmm.
And push for it. They knew something was off. They didn't quite understand it. And I was struggling with some other health issues too. And so we're thinking maybe it was that and they were just but they
Misty Smith: so did you understand that you had this happening, like anorexia.
Haley Freeman: I think at first I didn't, and then eventually I did, I remember I had a health book and it was talking about eating disorders, but it was this long this much
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: Of the book about anorexia. And I remember it, it said, and it had a before and after [00:11:00] picture.
Mm-hmm. And it had a picture of uh, her before or during her eating disorder and she looked. Sick, sickly.
Misty Smith: Right. Okay.
Haley Freeman: She was skinny and after she looked so much healthier and happier, and I remember thinking it was the first time in my life.
Mm-hmm.
I thought, what skinnier isn't better because she looked better, not so skinny.
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: And that was the first time in my life that I thought, whoa, can thinner not be better? And that was really, really powerful for me. And that's why when I go speak at schools or any youth group, I always put my picture in of when I was sick and then a year later when I was healthy, because I want them to see that.
I want them to have that aha moment of , oh wait, being skinnier isn't always better. It's not necessarily healthier, it doesn't look better. And because that was so powerful for me. So when I saw that, I remember thinking, and when I read this little paragraph, this big mm-hmm. I'm thinking, wait, do I have a disorder?
And then I was like, no. So I was [00:12:00] in denial for a long time.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: There was one point when I finally realized it, another thing when I was starting to lose weight and I just hated myself, I hated my body.
I hated everything about me. We had mirrors that were these cabinet mirrors. Okay. And you would could open 'em up and they, you could put things in inside the cabinet. Okay. But if you closed them in like this, uhhuh, like it made like a triangle and you couldn't see a mirror image anymore. Oh, because, 'cause it was the way it would it, it would open up the two cabinets and so when you trapped that in, you couldn't see a reflection anymore.
Misty Smith: Oh, okay.
Haley Freeman: So I'd always sneak into the bathroom, close up the reflection like that, and then shower. So I would never, ever see my reflection for months and months and months and months and months.
Misty Smith: Oh my goodness.
Haley Freeman: Then that way I could live in my denial. I could just live in my disease. I would never have to see what was happening to me.
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: So one time I decided to look at my reflection and to see what was happening, and I left it open, and that's when I saw that I was nothing but a skeleton.
Misty Smith: Did you accept that at that [00:13:00] point or was it scary?
Haley Freeman: It did. It scared me. I remember looking forward and I could see, you don't realize that you actually have like flesh and tissue on your.
Face and your forehead.
Mm-hmm.
But it was completely gone. Like I could see veins popping out through my forehead, and I could see the sunken cheeks and the sunken face, and I had no flesh left on my face even. And I could see that my arms were just, the joints of my elbow were large compared to the flesh.
There's just bones everywhere. There's no flesh left on my body. And it hurt. It hurt to be that thin because you had no protection. The fat you have on your body protects you. Mm-hmm. And so I remember just being like, excruciating just to sit down because the bones in my bottom would just dig in, and make bruises and dig into my flesh.
If you just bump yourself you don't realize that just functioning through the day, you bump your shoulder, you bump your arms, and you bump your elbow and it just hurt all the time. And I'd just be covered bruises.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: And then my back would just be covering bruises because [00:14:00] laying on a bed would hurt 'cause I would have no protection of any flesh,
Misty Smith: Even a bed.
Haley Freeman: Mm-hmm. And then I'd have a lot of swelling my body didn't know what to do with the fluid and I'd just have a lot swelling on my knees and ankles. that day that I saw my reflection in the mirror, I, was showering and I could feel my heart like barely beating.
I could tell it was struggling. I could tell my body, wanted to die, it couldn't live anymore in that state. And that's when I came outta the shower and I just hit the floor and I just was crying to him, praying to Heavenly Father, and I said. Okay. I know I need help. I know I'm dying.
I know I can't live like this anymore.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: And I said, if you help me live, literally from this moment, make it out of the shower, out of this bathroom and not die. 'cause that was to the point where my heart, I could tell it was gonna just stop beating, then I promise I'll go to my parents and finally let them give me help.
Misty Smith: Wow. Okay.
Haley Freeman: And that's what we did. And we started going to the Center for Change. And [00:15:00] they could see that I was very driven. I want help. I need help. I know that I can't do this on my own. I had tried once I realized I had a disorder, I thought I could do this by myself.
I'll start eating more. I can do this, but you can't. Addiction is so strong and the habit is so powerful. You can't do it on your own. And there are so many layers, like I was saying.
Mm-hmm.
You have to go to treatment and have 'em work with those issues underneath and you just have to be honest with your counselor and have 'em figure out all the problems that caused that.
The behavior of the eating disorder, it's really, just a symptom of other stuff going on underneath. And so you have to get all those worked out to get better. And so that's why I couldn't do it on my own.
Misty Smith: Right,
right, right.
Okay.
Haley Freeman: So at that point they said, since you're willing to try and everything, we'll have you as an outpatient. Even though I was, they said, you're like the worst We've seen physically, like they were taking all the [00:16:00] measurements and they're like, there's no body fat to even pinch to do the,
Misty Smith: oh my goodness.
Haley Freeman: To do the testing uhhuh and the weights and so they were scared. They said her heart could stop at any moment. It was just bad. They were scared. But I came home and I was still battling. I was just battling these voices in my mind, just saying, you're not good enough.
And, that depression and that darkness fighting me. And I have never talked about this part in any podcast before.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: I've talked about it in my book and I'm going to just going to touch on it just a little bit. Okay. 'cause I don't like bringing a lot of attention to dark things.
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: But at the same time, I think there's power in knowing what we're facing in life.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: And, I feel it's time that I can share these things, but like I said, it's in my book anyway. But I just was feeling like I needed extra help fighting these dark, thoughts the adversary just fighting me and not wanting me to heal.
So I went to my dad and I said, will you gimme a blessing [00:17:00] and when he started giving me the blessing, I was physically attacked by darkness. I was seized, like possessed or something.
Misty Smith: Okay,
Haley Freeman: My body flipped to the ground. And a whole bunch of scary things happened at that time.
But then at the same time during that, I saw. My grandma who had passed away and my sister who had passed away, and they were there in my room telling me , everything's gonna be okay. And they started to instruct, giving me instructions to give to my dad, to help, to help cast out what was attacking me.
And there were a lot of more details with that situation. Mm-hmm. But we eventually had to fast and pray to get everything completely cast out and protected me and the house protected and, um,
Misty Smith: that's incredible. Incredible to have an experience where the power of the priesthood and blessings can help you.
Haley Freeman: Yeah, it was, I was talking to another very, [00:18:00] I won't say his name, but it was a very, famous author and public speaker, and I was telling him about that story and he goes, the same thing happened to me.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: And he said it was at the MTC, and the same thing happened to me.
He goes, Haley, I don't know why, but for some reason me and you had to have a testimony of Satan and his demons and for some reason. And it's real. God's real and the adversary's real. Yes. And I think that's a tool that the adversary is using nowadays is to, so people think , oh, God's not real.
He's not real. Eat, drink and be merry. Right?
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: It's a tool he uses and we need to know, it's real, but we can always win and we can protect ourselves against that,
Misty Smith: mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: During that time I did have a near death experience where I was actually in a different, spiritual place with my grandma and my sister and, they told me that I had a choice if I wanted to live or stay with them. And they showed me [00:19:00] like a beautiful future. That's what's amazing is for all that time I was suicidal. I didn't wanna live. I was so depressed for the year before that. I would pray to die.
I was so depressed. But then they showed me this future of oh, we need you to go write a book. We need to you to go help other people. You need to go have a family. We want you to go learn sign language and all these different things. And then I was so excited to come back. I know some people when they have near death experiences, they're like, I don't wanna go back.
I wanna stay here. But I didn't feel like that after they showed me everything. I was like, yes, I can't wait to go back. I can't wait to have this future. And that's one reason why I named my book, a Future for Tomorrow because I finally felt like I had this beautiful future and I was so excited.
Misty Smith: I love that
Haley Freeman: Then, few days later after that happened I just kept getting sicker. And what happened is my mind like I was saying, the brain has to have all that fat to stay healthy and well. But it literally just broke without that nutrients.
So then I started [00:20:00] going psychotic. The treatments we were doing at home just wasn't enough. So my parents had to take me to the emergency room
Misty Smith: mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: At the hospital in Provo, and I didn't even recognize my parents anymore. I didn't know my name. Here I am, I'm 16.
I was a 4.0 student, and now I didn't know how to even complete sentences coherently.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: I didn't understand instructions. I didn't know what to do with a fork and eat anymore. I didn't know how to get dressed.
I didn't know how to brush my hair anymore. I didn't know anything.
Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
Haley Freeman: Because I was psychotic the way I was behaving, they couldn't just put me in the regular part of the hospital. They had to put me in the psych unit of , the teenager psych unit. And parents are not allowed to stay in the psych unit.
But at the same time, I didn't know how to bathe myself. I didn't know how to brush my hair. I didn't know how to brush my teeth. And so my mom said , I need to be with her to help her. I need to help her do these [00:21:00] things. They're like, well, parents aren't allowed. So the first night they just put me in there alone, and I didn't understand why my mom was leaving me and abandoning me, and I didn't know what to do.
They had a technician watching me, but I was just fighting with them and wrestling with them. 'cause I didn't understand what was happening. I thought they were kidnapping me. My brain was just so confused. And then finally my mom fought the hospital and says, I am not leaving this girl.
'cause when she came back, I was worse. I had lost more weight. My hair was tangled. I was in this confused state. I just didn't understand anything. But when she came around, I would calm down.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: I would calm and then I would allow her to help , to feed me.
Misty Smith: What a good mom.
Haley Freeman: Oh!
Misty Smith: That's. Right there. Love, like she, obviously she raised you and I don't think she could fathom losing you.
Yeah. So she gave her life and continued to
Haley Freeman: mm-hmm. Yeah, she saved my life completely.
Misty Smith: That's amazing.
Haley Freeman: So she fought the administration so she did not have to leave.
Misty Smith: Right. Good for her.
Haley Freeman: And yeah, so she hand [00:22:00] fed me. She said it was like a toddler.
She'd have to tell me when to open my mouth and everything. And she said it would take hours sometimes.
Mm-hmm.
But she did. And then she would rub lotion on my arms. 'cause like I said, it was just my arms were just, the skin was dying and flicking off. And then she brushed my hair and she would have to bathe me.
'cause I didn't understand anymore how to do that.
Mm-hmm.
And she did everything for me. And she saved my life. Literally. She saved my life.
Misty Smith: Good mom.
Haley Freeman: Yep.
Misty Smith: Good mom. So you were there for a while, a long while recovering.
Your mom helped you.
Haley Freeman: Yeah. So we, I ended up being there about for a month.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: Between her just helping me eat and then some medications they put me on to help my brain to heal.
Mm-hmm.
When they admitted me, the doctor said to her, she's not going to live. She, they said. Her, my liver and my kidneys were all failing. My heart was to the point where it was gonna just have a heart attack [00:23:00] at any moment.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: And then the doctor said, so you need to just prepare to know that she's going to pass away.
Misty Smith: Oh my goodness.
Haley Freeman: Then they said, but if she does live, they said, we've never seen anyone this bad before. With the combination of the severe anorexia and the severe the psychosis. Okay. They said they've never seen the combination of the two that's this bad before ever.
And they said, if she does, like physically make it through
mm-hmm.
Her brain is gone. They said, so just plan on her having to live at like the state mental hospital or something the rest of her life. 'cause she's just gone,
Misty Smith: did they tell you any of this or was this just,
Haley Freeman: I was gone, like my brain?
I wasn't coherent. I couldn't speak to anybody or comprehend anything that was going on.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: I remember parts of things, like, I remember very clearly the things I wrote in my book. So I remember glimpses of it. And then I also, when I wrote my book, I went and got all my medical records.
Misty Smith: Oh.
Haley Freeman: So I had over 80 pages of medical records from that stay. I had exact quotes of the staff and because they assigned [00:24:00] me one-on-one with technicians that never left my side, ever. And they wrote like they had to keep a daily log on all my behaviors. So I have all of that written.
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: So I was able to piece that together. My parents, they were writing, I wrote a journal every single day.
So in my book, the beginning of it
mm-hmm.
Is actual journal excerpts, at the beginnings of each chapter. And then once I got into the hospital, the beginning of the chapters are the actual quotes from the technicians.
Misty Smith: Oh, okay. So having all that information, looking back at it, were you even shocked that you made it through?
Haley Freeman: Oh yeah. I mean, the doctors are like, okay, she's gonna die or she's gonna into the hospital, but we believe in miracles and that's what happened, is a miracle .
Misty Smith: Yes,
Haley Freeman: I don't think, um. cause I was with my grandma and my sister.
Mm-hmm.
And they told me, you can pick. And I chose to live and I knew I was gonna live.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: So, at times if my mom was scared I would tell her I'm gonna be okay. Once I [00:25:00] started recovering my brain a little bit, so almost a month later, I was able to tell her I had flashes of coherence, moments
uhhuh.
And when I had those flashes, I would tell her I'm gonna be okay. But those were just short little, just moments of miracle for her to have that comfort. But a lot of the times I was just in this delusional state,
Misty Smith: so scary
Haley Freeman: Yeah. Like I said, we believe in miracles and that's what we had was a miracle there.
Misty Smith: Yeah. Awesome. So you went home after a month?
Mm-hmm.
And. You just recovered or?
Haley Freeman: I had to have a counselor still.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: I still had to have medications and work through all those layers.
Misty Smith: Okay.
Haley Freeman: That's very important to treatment.
Misty Smith: Okay, so out of all of this that happened, what are some things that you feel you learned from all of this? There's a lot.
Haley Freeman: Yeah. Absolutely.
Misty Smith: So what stands out to you?
Haley Freeman: I think the number one thing I learned is that Heavenly Father will always have my back.
Hmm.
He will always be there for me.
He will [00:26:00] always make sure that I'm okay and that things will be okay. And that miracles are real. Angels are real.
Misty Smith: Yeah. Love that. That's so good. So to those people who are struggling with these kind of trials and troubles in their lives, do you have any specific tips?
Haley Freeman: Yeah. I think I mentioned it , but absolutely. You, you need to get help to heal.
Misty Smith: Right?
Haley Freeman: It is a deadly illness and the statistics of death, goes down significantly if you, it is 20% death rate if you don't get help and that goes down to 2% if you get help.
Misty Smith: Really,
Haley Freeman: so you need to get help. And the other thing is find a passion to get better because it becomes part of your identity. For me, I was like, I'm the girl with eating disorder. I'm the anorexic girl. If I'm not that, who am I? And it becomes your identity. So find a passion, so that becomes your identity.
Mm-hmm.
For me like I said, my sister and my grandma, they told me to learn sign [00:27:00] language.
Misty Smith: Oh, that's right.
Haley Freeman: And for me now, I love it. I have deaf friends and I actually teach sign language classes.
Misty Smith: Yeah.
Haley Freeman: That's so, and I love it so much, but I didn't realize at the time that actually helped me heal because I all of a sudden was the girl that knew sign language
Misty Smith: okay.
Haley Freeman: I learned it so quick. It was like I was remembering it
Misty Smith: Wow.
Haley Freeman: Then just a few months later after I started learning it, I met one of my best friends ever. And she's deaf.
Misty Smith: Oh, okay.
Haley Freeman: It became my passion, it became my way of healing. Because it gave me my new identity.
Misty Smith: Really?
Haley Freeman: I said, I was obsessed about my eating uhhuh. Now I could be obsessed about sign language. It could became my, not obsessed, but my passion.
Right?
Misty Smith: Right.
Haley Freeman: So it, gave me something else to focus on instead of, oh, how much did I eat?
Instead of that, I can switch and I could go study my sign language and it became my new identity. It became my new passion. So that's what you need to do when you're in the process of trying to heal from eating disorder. Find your passion. That's my tip.
Misty Smith: I think totally by praying. By adding people to help you can find that passion.
You [00:28:00] did.
Haley Freeman: Yep.
Misty Smith: And having your support and family.
What is one final message that you want to leave our listeners?
Haley Freeman: That every person has a purpose on earth and a mission on Earth. And something that I learned through my experience I had is just how individual that purpose and plan is, and how valued you are as a child of God.
And to pray, to know your purpose, and to know how valued you are and how loved you are and know that there are angels around you to support you to complete that mission. And just know that's. True. And that you are so valued
Misty Smith: that's beautiful. I love it.
That's wonderful. Haley do you have some way or some place that you want people to contact you? Yeah. Do you have Facebook, Instagram?
Haley Freeman: Yeah. Definitely I have Facebook and Instagram. You can find me just at, Haley Hatch Freeman. On my website is [00:29:00] haleyhfreeman.com, and you can get my books on there.
I have the one I've been talking about today, which is A Future for Tomorrow, but I've also written some children's books. I've spoken at a lot of events and women come up to me and say, we absolutely love your book for like me and my teenager, this is so sad.
It's heartbreaking, but mm-hmm. Though it's my second grader or my 5-year-old or whatever that's having body image issues or self-esteem issues or whatever. And so I started writing children's books, so check those out as well. And again, at haleyhfreeman.com, you can get those.
Misty Smith: That's, that's great.
Haley Freeman: Thank you so much. I appreciate you talking to me and next week we are going to share Misty's story. She also has an awesome miracle story.
Misty Smith: Yes. Right. Well, thank you
Haley. That was incredible. Thank you.
Outro: Thank you for joining us on Latter-day Miracles. If you have a miracle story that you feel inspired to share, we'd [00:30:00] love to hear from you. Contact us on our website at latterdaymiracles.net or message us on social media. Until next time, keep your heart open to the miraculous and may you feel the presence of angels in your everyday life.
00:00 Introduction to Latter Day Miracles
00:27 Meet Your Hosts: Haley and Misty
00:42 Haley's Journey Begins
05:45 The Struggle with Anorexia
10:52 Realization and Seeking Help
16:59 Facing Darkness
17:35 A Spiritual Encounter and Family Support
19:07 Near-Death Experience and Finding Purpose
20:17 Hospitalization and Mother's Dedication
22:57 Miraculous Recovery and New Identity
26:08 Lessons Learned and Final Message
29:15 Contact Information and Closing Remarks
