Why this runner and social media influencer speaks up about eating disorders and religion

Before she turned into a 27-year-old social media influencer and blogger focused on running, mental health awareness and faith, Maria Abbe was diagnosed with an eating disorder. She named him “Doug.” Because personification can be helpful with storytelling.

Doug appeared when she was 15 years old and struggling with anorexia, then he morphed into bulimia when she was “breaking up” with him as a college student at Belmont Abbey. She kicked him to the curb, entered a rough relationship with Anxiety and Depression (no need to rename those, she points out) and landed in the hospital with a severe panic attack. Shortly after, in her early twenties, she found running.

At 23, she started her blog, Running Myself Together.

“I was so sick and tired — I was just tired of living the life I was living,” Abbe said.

She knew that she had overcome a lot. A lot that she could share. So she started writing as she kept running, as she kept overcoming moments of anxiety and depression through physical exertion. She found catharsis.

When Instagram got popular, she converted her personal account to @runningmyselftogether, gathering more than 3,000 followers. She has experimented with product promotion and strategy, but for the most part, she posts a few times a week when she feels led to do so in a genuine way.

“I’m doing this for the same reason I started it,” she said. “I don’t want people to feel alone.”

She finds that posting what she feels called to share, versus what she strategizes, tends to garner more authentic engagement anyway.

Today, Abbe works as a content manager for a small company, lives in a South End apartment with a roommate (and her roommate’s dog), is a 2018 Charlotte Marathon Ambassador prepping to run her first marathon, and is happily in a relationship. If you count the racing bibs she keeps tacked to a bulletin board on her wall at home, you’ll count about 20.

And if you count how many words she’s introducing her next social media project with, you’ll count five. She recently posted on Instagram: “Looking for a prayer partner?”

In the same way Abbe isn’t quiet about her struggles with an eating disorder, Abbe isn’t quiet about her Catholicism. Her Instagram profile has the descriptions “Catholic” and “Writer Praising God w/ every step,” after all.

“I’m very transparent in my blog, and again, it would not be genuine if I didn’t talk about how meaningful it is to me,” she said of religion.

She is a devout member of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dilworth, has started teaching Bible school studies, and she wrapped up a religious pilgrimage with a group in 2017. She traveled to Fátima in Portugal. She walked part of El Camino de Santiago in Spain. She visited other religious sites, attended Mass each day and found more perspective.

“Every single day was just so spiritually invigorating,” she said. “I can’t hold this in. I have this platform.”

She has Instagram.

She launched her prayer partners project right before Christmas last year, pairing about 30 interested people at random through social media. She introduced them (“This is your new friend in Christ”) and backed away.

“There are no parameters on it,” she said. “Here’s someone to pray for, and for them to pray for you.”

Some of her posts about faith receive negative comments, and cause people to unfollow her. But for the most part, she believes it resonates with her following, so she is launching round two of her prayer partners project June 1. People can comment on this post or send her a direct message up until midnight June 1, then she will match people up through social media.

The timing is perfect, she said, because we’re coming out of May, which was Mental Health Awareness Month.

“We can’t just talk about it and not connect people to support each other,” said Abbe, whose primary focus with her platform is still insight and running.

For this coming month, people can connect, tell their partner something they are struggling with, or ask for a special intention.

“It really is just a way to not feel so alone,” she said.

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 12:00 AM.