Why I Am Grateful for 12 Years With an Eating Disorder
On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, I traveled to Washington D.C. with hundreds of other eating disorder advocates to participate in the Eating Disorders Coalition’s fall Lobby Day and to join the first ever M.O.M. March on Capitol Hill (#MarchAgainstED). I’d never done activism of this sort before. So, on Monday night as I was packing for my trip, I Googled “What do you wear to go lobbying?” The answer: “Look good. Damn good. You’re representing millions of people in these meetings.” (But hey, no reason to be nervous, right?) To be honest, the fact that I would...
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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