Change Forces a Choice

Change is an inevitable part of life, no matter how hard we try to avoid it. Change can be good or bad and can be especially difficult for those who stick to routines. I remember one of the therapists in IOP telling us all that a woman had to come back to treatment after many years of doing well. A change impacted her life so much that she didn’t know how to deal without the eating disorder, even after years of not acting on symptoms. Her change? She got married. Marriage is a welcome change, and yet, a difficult one at the same time. It disrupts the balance of life and things are different.

After spending $60,000 and four years – half of which were shared with the eating disorder – of my life in college, I graduated with a degree in something I enjoyed. I chose my major, I received good grades, and I earned the piece of paper to prove it. And then it all hit me. What was I supposed to do after college? Going to class and doing homework was easy! It had been my life from the time I was four years old. I didn’t know anything else. How was I supposed to survive a fulltime job? How was I supposed to FIND a job? Was I supposed to know how to do

Boundaries CANNOT Be Crossed

Within the relationship between therapist and patient, there’s a set of rules that must be followed in order to keep therapy safe and effective. In my years of seeing various therapists, they were generally left unsaid but were implied and understood pretty well. I didn’t particularly like a couple of them, while I’m certain a few others are the best in the business. Personalities varied, techinques were all a bit different, but boundaries were held to a high standard in most cases. Therapists do not talk much about themselves unless it relates to what’s going on in therapy, and even then it’s minimal information. Physical touch is mostly a big no-no except in certain circumstances, and personal relationships are not permitted. With my understanding of how it all works, I was shocked when I found this article a few days ago:

Sarah White, New York’s Naked Therapist

Yes, you read correctly. NAKED therapist. Sarah White, a 24 year old therapist, says she makes her clients more comfortable by

Don’t Answer the Question

“Do I look fat?”

It’s a question we’ve all heard before, whether from a friend, sister, mother, or co-worker, and I’m guessing the majority of us have also asked. It’s a loaded question with no real answer. If the answer is no, is the other person only saying that to make me feel better? If the answer is yes, my image is reality and I really do look horrible! So what are people supposed to say when that question pops up out of nowhere?

The truth is, asking the question really has nothing to do with “fat” at all. It’s been drilled in my head over and over that “fat” is not a feeling, but the word itself is constantly used in place for other emotions. Uncomfortable, unworthy, unloveable, stressed, anxious, sad, overwhelmed. If someone doesn’t have the capacity to pick out a specific word to express how they’re feeling, “fat” is the first descriptor that comes to mind. It’s easy to say and others automatically relate. “Fat” is one word that seems to take the place of everything negative. Instead of explaining and

Bloggers Encouraging Disordered Eating?

While reading an article at Marie Claire’s website, I came across the story, The Hunger Diaries – How Health Writers Could Be Putting You at Risk. In today’s world, it’s so easy to start a blog and not too hard to attract followers with the right marketing and content. Any one can write about any thing, whether they’re qualified or not. In the article, the writer mentions six bloggers, dubbed the “Big Six,” who are apparently very popular among the health food crowd. Of the six, only one is a registered dietician, while I don’t know how the others have gained their knowledge about nutrition and healthy eating. Is what they’re preaching valuable information? Or are they leading others, possibly vulnerable to eating disorders already, down the wrong path?

Among their weight control tips, they suggested “food sabotage” as an option. Using salt as a deterent on desserts was among the examples. While I don’t remember ever over-salting foods to control my intake, I engaged in similar types of food sabotage when I was at my sickest. The question is, is destroying food in such a way normal? Why not just eat the dessert? If it’s eaten in moderation, there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s an App for That!

In today’s world, many people rely on high tech gadgets for every day life. Personally, my iPod Touch is always with me, almost glued to my hand some days. There seems to be technology for everything, from self-parking cars, to bladeless fans, and yes, portable wireless programs for weight loss. With the so-called “Obesity Epidemic” on the rise, there’s a heightened awareness about the subject and it can’t be escaped.

Being curious, I typed in “diet” in on iTunes to find out just how many apps there are out there. Since I searched for “diet,” some apps that appeared weren’t geared towards weight loss, such as those with diabetes, coeliacs disease, or other conditions/allergies, and some were recipe catalogues. But the majority were specifically for losing weight, calorie counting, and calculating BMIs or time spent exercising. My search gave me eight full pages worth of apps, with 180 per page. For those who are bad at math (like me!), that’s 1440 different programs to track