Insurance: The Greatest Barrier to Recovery
I wondered whether it was too early to write about this topic here, seeing as I’m still building, persuading, cajoling, and outright begging a following for this blog. But because this issue is so critical, I will probably end up writing about it again anyway (and again, and again, and again…). Insurance coverage. In the eating disorder world, I have yet to see a bigger obstacle to recovery. That might sound hyperbolic, but I assure you it is the truth. Eating disorders are insidious, complex, deadly illnesses that are notoriously difficult to shake. As far as anorexia goes, an estimated...
Read MoreIt’s Not (Just) About Weight
If you know even just slightly more about eating disorders than which celebrities have been stricken by one, then you probably know that eating disorders have a myriad of causes. Society, however, tends to zero in on the obsession with weight loss, which gives the impression that eating disorders, at their core, are exclusively about the pursuit of a “thin ideal.” This assumption might come in part from a general cultural allegiance to that ideal, an allegiance that manifests in fad diets, a preponderance of film stars and models who glamorize thinness, and the overuse of Photoshop to mold...
Read MoreThe Middle Ground
A while back, I sought out recovery-oriented social media sites. At the time, I was in the throes of an 11-year battle with anorexia. Finding these sites was like finding solid ground, the Internet being mired in pro-ana sites and “thinspiration.” But recovery-oriented social media platforms provided testimony after testimony that recovery is real, and gave me hope that maybe I, too, could change the direction in which my life was headed. Since last autumn, I have been making those changes. Six months of residential, day treatment, and intensive outpatient treatment, particularly...
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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.
