Update: New Tech City’s “How Eating Disorders Evolved Online”
If you’ve been with me since last summer, then you might remember a radio broadcast about the internet and eating disorders that I participated in last September. The other day, the host of that show (New Tech City on WNYC) contacted me to say that the story had done so well that they would be re-airing the story with an update! I wanted to share a link to the updated story here with all of you. It was pretty exciting to be included in the story, especially because the New Tech City gang treated the topic so respectfully and thoughtfully. They were a team I could trust with my story....
Read More“Just Eat” Documentary Takes on National Injustice
Eating disorders are deadly illnesses. Whether it’s the physical complications that kill you — cardiac arrest, organ failure, or otherwise — or it’s suicide prompted by the extreme mood disturbances, eating disorders, if left untreated, do not end well. In fact, they have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. And yet, in addition to being the deadliest, they are the most overlooked, underfunded, and misunderstood. We in the eating disorder community are very familiar with these incongruities. Now, the public will also get an inside look at the things we suffer day...
Read MoreBefore and After Photos: To Post or Not To Post?
I stumbled upon a before and after picture this morning while mindlessly browsing Facebook. I couldn’t look away. The girl (who I know from treatment) was severely underweight in the photo. I was simultaneously horrified and captivated. For a moment, I was transported back into the eating disorder mindset. I remembered the “good” feeling of seeing the number on the scale drop. I remembered how “accomplished” I felt watching myself shrink. Eventually, I was able to talk myself down from it. I reminded myself that although losing weight did make me feel “good” and “accomplished,” the good...
Read MoreNEDAwareness Week: Dieting and Eating Disorders
Statistics show that it’s actually a very small amount of people that develop eating disorders — 4% of people are diagnosed with bulimia in their lifetime, and somewhere between 4.2 and just 1% of people are diagnosed with anorexia. So why all the eating disorder awareness fuss? Because this week is about much more than just the eating disorders that make it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It’s about addressing an entire culture of dieting and disordered eating. In the United States there are more than 108 million people who are on a diet. The weight-loss industry —...
Read MoreNEDAwareness Week 2015
Media Literacy Today begins National Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2015. Last year, I spent NEDAwareness Week inside a residential treatment facility. I hadn’t even known the week was coming up until I saw it on the weekly schedules we received, which told us what groups were available and when our various therapy and medical appointments were taking place. I had never “celebrated” (if that’s the right word… commemorated?) NEDAwareness Week before then. After all, it had only been a little over two months since I’d even learned that what I’d...
Read MoreRefinery29 Accuses Author of Claiming to Cure Bulimia
For the last few weeks I have been writing for the Proud2BMe.org Media Response Team. A dozen or so 20-somethings (and some younger) keep an eye out for images, articles, and anything else that sustains the thin ideal, unrealistic body image, fat (or thin) shaming, and so on and so forth. My editor recently alerted us to a recent book review put out by the website Refinery29 about a forthcoming book called Chasing Hunger. According to Refinery29 writer Kelsey Miller, the book is “so outrageous and offensive that it’s almost laughable. Almost.” And indeed — what Miller recounted was...
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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.
