Funny story.

So, I was talking with a previous therapist today and inquiring about maybe working with her again. She told me that she was now using a new kind of therapy — CBT-E. It sounded familiar to me, but all I could recall off the top of my head was that it was one of those time-limited therapist… where you had 20 sessions or something. I would have googled it right then, but I was in the car and couldn’t.

First, in case you don’t know what “body checking” is, there’s a great description at Eating Disorder Hope:
The truth is, everyone checks their body on occasion; perhaps it’s taking note of how clothes fit or grabbing a quick peek at the reflection in a store window. However, those with eating disorders repeatedly check their bodies in ways that are unusual. In fact, for these people, body and weight checking becomes second nature. Often individuals with eating disorders don’t even realize they’re doing it. Typically, they check to feel for fatness, …

What does the eating disorder steal from your holidays?
1. Time spent with friends and family
2. Holiday spirit
3. The world outside of treatment
4. Holiday food
5. Almost a whole season of the year that’s different from any other time

Some interesting thoughts on truth vs. lies from two of my favorite philosophers — Mark Twain and Gregory House.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t need to remember anything.”
– Mark Twain
“I don’t ask why patients lie, I just assume they all do.”
“It’s a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.”
“I’ve found that when you want to know the truth about someone that someone is probably the last person you should ask.”
– Gregory House

So, while everyone lies sometimes, people struggling with an eating …

Laura from “Eating With Your Anorexic” posted something the other day, that I just HAD to comment on:
Something new is happening in eating disorders. The voice of eating disorder patients is less stereotyped, more empowered, and less victimized. Why? I attribute the changes to two separate but interacting elements: the cross-pollination of the Internet, and the shifting narratives of the treatment community.
Before the Internet, our exposure to literature about eating disorders was limited to the few books that happened to be on the bookstore shelves that year and the occasional …

While it took me a few minutes to rationalize how unplanned pregnancies could be MORE common in those with an ED history, I did eventually come up with a few theories…

There was a post on Lifehack the other day called, “3 Reasons Why Shame is Your Friend.”  I saw that headline and of course HAD to read it. It turns out it’s the third in a series, after “Why Fear is Your Friend”  and “Why Sadness is Your Friend.” How many times have we talked about these things in therapy… as negative influences?
Personally, they’re all pretty interconnected for me. I’m all about avoiding everything (seriously), and a lot of that is probably fear-based. I’m afraid of screwing …

In case you missed it (like I did), the new season of Celebrity Rehab began a couple of weeks ago. I’m just now catching up, and in the process of trying to watch everything on VH1.com, ran across a blog post about Drew Pinsky and his interview in GQ magazine.
When Vargas-Cooper asks Pinsky if putting troubled, narcissistic people in front of a camera as they endure the recovery process, he justifies that, saying “Here’s the thing: These are unmotivated people who want to be on TV and make money. …

Dr. Walter Vandereycken did a really interesting study on how both professionals and patients viewed dropping out from eating disorder treatment. It’s something that I’ve definitely observed (patients and staff having different takes on why someone leaves…

I think that social media is creating a new kind of medialization — one where you don’t have that intermediary between researchers and the public. Sure, I retweet news articles all the time, but I can also talk to psychologists, doctors, and researchers directly. Now, I wouldn’t consider twitter “a primary source of health information,” but it is…