Is Anorexia a Choice?
Is My Eating Disorder a Choice? There’s a question that sufferers don’t want to think about and supporters don’t want to ask: Am I to blame for my eating disorder? Responsibility is a thorny issue when it comes to eating disorders, as it tends to be with mental illnesses in general. There is no talk of blame when it comes to physical illness like cancer, or lupus, or pneumonia. But for psychogenic illnesses, things aren’t so cut and dry. The origins of these diseases are hidden deep within the brain’s circuitry, where no diagnostic test can obtain concrete answers. In the absence of an...
Read MoreWhy I WILL Praise Miss Indiana For Her Body
The Huffington Post recently featured a blog that lamented the conversation surrounding the latest Miss USA pageant. Contestant Miss Indiana gained attention for her curvy, “healthy-looking” physique, which stood out against the “bag[s] of bones” said to typically populate the modeling and pageant worlds. Like many who saw Miss Indiana as a counter to our thin-obsessed society, blog author Christina Grasso was glad the pageant pushed the envelope in terms of which body types it deemed beautiful. She goes on to say, however, that the public reaction lauding Miss...
Read MoreThe sale of an allegedly “pro-eating disorder” t-shirt caused an outcry on Twitter today, raising alarm across the eating disorder community. Early this morning, Twitter user Kristin Foster (@KristinEff) posted a friend’s picture of the t-shirt, which prompted hundreds of outraged tweets: The t-shirt, which was being sold by Toronto-based retailer Hudson’s Bay, featured a phrase that is infamous among ED sufferers, professionals, and supporters. The phrase comes from a 2009 interview with model Kate Moss in Women’s Wear Daily. Asked if she had a personal motto, Moss responded, “Nothing...
Who Am I Recovering For?
When I was in residential treatment recovering from anorexia, a young woman told me she felt guilty about her lack of motivation. She had entered treatment, she said, because her fiancé begged her to seek help. Out of devotion to him, she complied. “But I know I should be doing this for myself, and not for anyone else,” she said. My question in response was: Why? Very few people who begin the hard work of recovery are 100% committed to the task. That’s not to say that we necessarily want to remain sick—like everyone, we want to feel comfortable in our own skins, to not worry that we’re...
Read MorePart 2 — Insurance: The Greatest Barrier to Recovery
If I eat and gain weight, will I be considered “too healthy”? If I don’t eat and lose weight, will I be considered “noncompliant”? One reason why eating disorders are so difficult to treat is because, in addition to addressing symptoms, you must first convince the patient that he or she is actually sick. She might deny that she has any problem whatsoever with her eating habits and other behaviors. Or, even if she admits to struggling, she might insist that she is nowhere near as sick (i.e., as thin) as other patients. So, imagine the ED patient’s confusion and distress when, after...
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I'm a writer, a mental health activist, and a 20-something in recovery from an eating disorder. This blog chronicles my journey through the middle ground toward full recovery.
