More Than Weight Had Been Lost: One Year Post-Residential
I sat in the waiting area clutching the hospital gown I had been given, waiting for one of the nurses to call my name. A shoeless girl shuffled by wheeling a pole with an IV bag dangling from the top. A long tube protruded from the IV bag, snaked down the pole, and disappeared into her nose. What am I doing here? One year ago today I was admitted into a residential treatment center in Philadelphia. Emotionally, I was already drained from battling just to get to the facility. I had been told more than two weeks earlier that I wasn’t making enough progress in the day treatment program and...
Read MoreNational Suicide Prevention Week: An Open Letter to a Survivor
This week is the 2014 National Suicide Prevention Week. Suicide is a topic that has been hitting home lately, having experienced three brushes with suicide among friends and acquaintances this year, two of which were successful. Suicide is a difficult topic to talk about, because it spotlights what most of us try to run from — our mortality. For me, trying to fathom the literally unimaginable moment I cease to exist brings up something akin to horror. To then grapple with the startling truth that we each have the capacity (and occasionally the impulse) to deliberately launch ourselves into...
Read MoreWhy Grief is Key to the Recovery Process
Those who are recovering from an eating disorder hear often that recovery is a process. When treatment gets tough and recovery seems just out of reach, this can serve as a helpful reminder. When I hear the word process, though, I think of a series of specific steps that must be taken to achieve an end result. As we know, recovery from an eating disorder is anything but orderly. While there are indeed some steps that all recovering individuals must take — for instance, making peace with food, addressing underlying issues, and (in some cases) stabilizing weight — recovery, on the whole, is an...
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