Medication and Eating Disorders: An “Anti” View
A diabetic isn’t considered weak for taking insulin. Why am I looked down on for taking medication to help my mind function? The right to take psychiatric medication — without having to justify it — ranks high on the anti-stigma agenda. There is a long way to go in achieving true mental health parity, but the frequency with which I see this particular plug leads me to believe that we’re making headway. So now I ask that same community of mental health advocates to expand your open-mindedness in yet another direction: my right NOT to take medication. Getting On the Medication I began...
Read MoreNew York State Residents: We Need Your Help to Pass Anna’s Law!!
New York residents in Congressional District 27 — We need your help! I’ve been in Washington, DC for the last two days, lobbying for the Anna Westin Act with the Eating Disorders Coalition and participating in the #MarchAgainstED with countless eating disorder survivors, families, and advocates. I have a lot to say about my experience, and I will post more about it in the coming days. Right now, however, there is task we need your help with. The New York lobby team had many meetings yesterday, and we received a lot of positive feedback — except in one case. Representative Chris Collins...
Read MoreFrom Solitary to Solidarity: Why I Marched (and Will Continue to March) Against ED
This post was written as a request from the MOM Marchers asking me to share my experience with last year’s inaugural #MarchAgainstED Self-reliant. That term has stuck to me for much of my life. (That, together with my mother’s fond saying that a shark could bite off my leg and I still would refuse to cry.) My independence is a chicken-or-the-egg kind of quality. Have I always preferred to solve my own problems? Or was the descriptor “self-reliant” innocently bestowed on me at some point during childhood, and I spent the rest of my development living up to it? However it originated,...
Read MorePlease Help Jackie!
I’m posting again about my friend Jackie and her GoFundMe campaign, because her update this morning (#37) blew me away. She recounts how, two years ago today, she allowed her primary care physician to help her finally address the eating disorder she’d struggled with since childhood. From there, she began to see a therapist and a dietician, and she eventually admitted to Monte Nido. I’ve only known Jackie for about a year now, but reading about where she was two years ago made it apparent to me how far she has come. She is SO close to her fundraising goal. And she has done...
Read MoreThe Documentary “Thin” and the Treatment Loophole
Thin If you know eating disorders, then you know the 2006 HBO documentary Thin, by Lauren Greenfield. The documentary follows four young women receiving treatment for anorexia and bulimia in a residential facility. Many of us with eating disorders know Thin for somewhat macabre reasons. Like other depictions of the illness (film, literature, or otherwise), the film served as a kind of “how to” guide, with little tips and tricks that hadn’t yet occurred to us. (That is disturbing, I know — but keep in mind that we are talking about a mental illness here.) I watched the film four or five years...
Read MoreHealing My Soul – Supporting Jackie
I’m sharing a link with all of you to a GoFundMe page. The page has been set up to help a friend I met in treatment at Monte Nido. (She didn’t ask me to share this, by the way – I just feel that strongly about her as person.) I met Jackie last fall when we were in IOP at EDTNY, and our paths crossed again this summer at EDTNY, this time in PHP. It was deeply moving to watch Jackie confront the traumas that have fed her eating disorder. Her courage at mealtimes was especially remarkable, since these were the moments that some of her worst flashbacks would surface. She would...
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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.
