What’s the value of mental health blogging? I stumbled upon this post on The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, where Seaneen discusses the role that blogging has played in her struggle with bipolar disorder. At the end of the post she poses a question:
What are your views on mental health blogging? If you have a blog, why did you start writing it?
I wrote this in her comments (in case it sounds familiar), but I think that mental health blogging is valuable for several reasons:

It can provide …

“Holiday” and “reflection” go hand-in-hand for me. Actually, I think the equation is more like this:
holidays + remembering to be thankful + being at home + the annual family Christmas card photo = reflection.
Reflection might not be such a bad thing… but reflection leads to comparing. There is still the day-to-day comparing myself to others in my surrounding (although I think I’m getting better about this), but this time of year leads me to compare myself to former versions of myself.
I blame a lot of this on the …

This question (turned argument) was posed the other night… Often when you sit down at a restaurant your waiter will come and sit a basket of bread (or tortilla chips if you’re at a Mexican restaurant) on the table–correct? Now, maybe you are recovering from bulimia and that basket of bread is really triggering. Is it disordered to say to the waiter, “No thanks, we don’t need the bread”?
Therapists response: Yes that is disordered because you should be able to have the bread on the table. If …

This is not going to be an insightful or even remotely academically-based post — nope, just something that’s on my mind today: Positive Self Talk (PST).  I have to know… does this actually help anyone?  If you are having a lousy body image day and stand in the mirror and tell yourself that you are a beautiful person… do you feel better?  Because on these days when I am truly depressed over weight or self-image or the like, there is NO self-love coming out of my mouth.  These are days …

Top 10 Eating Disorder Controversies:
(In my opinion, and not in order of importance)

Full recovery is possible (to the point of being “cured”)
EDs are symptoms of a deep-seeded childhood trauma or toxic environment
Treatment should not be forced upon those who don’t feel ready to recover
Weight gain goals should be 100% of ideal body weight
Meal plans and/or monitored exchange/calorie counting is necessary
Without working through the underlying psychological causes of the eating disorder, one cannot completely recover
Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder are all on one disordered eating continuum
Society is largely to blame …

“The pot calling the kettle black.”
My nutritionist in college introduced me to that phrase. It was new to me at the time, and I thought that it was ridiculous (although we weren’t on very good terms, so there was definitely a negative bias there), but I’ve heard it 100 times since and it perfectly fits the situation I want to talk about:
Subject: People with eating disorders advising others with eating disorders.
I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of it — I’m not 100% recovered. I’ll …

My boyfriend works in the ED (Emergency Department).
At work, sometimes I need to purge information (clear out).
There is a lot of terminology used in the eating disorder world, and it’s funny how it still catches me off-guard when similar acronyms / terminology is used in the real world.
BP: Binge/Purge — or a gas station
AN: Anorexia Nervosa — or atomic number (that was always weird to see on paper in chemistry)
BED: Binge Eating Disorder — or Bachelor of Education
OD: Overdose — or overdue
And one of these days …

To build on yesterday’s post… I have quite a few “rules” that seem very logical to me. Not really eating disordered rules, like “no liquids with calories”… although some of those do still linger (at the height of my disorder, I could have probably written a book with all of my rules). No, these are different — we’ll just call them “Grey Logic.” Obviously they are influenced by recent events / arguments.
1. You must abide by “ED recovery etiquette” – By this I mean, no matter how …

Half of Americans are dieting these days (not an official statistic) — and I can’t handle being around any of them. That rules out a lot of potential relationships! But really… I don’t handle being around dieting well. I don’t need anyone around me counting calories or skipping meals. Why? Because:
1. I’ve spent enough time in my life counting calories (and want those hours back!
2. It’s triggering
3. I feel guilty for eating more, weighing more, needing more, wanting more, thinking I deserve more, etc
4. Paranoia …

Just finished watching Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Addiction Special… and I’ll be the first to admit that I love Dr. Drew. I think that he is insightful, sensitive, non-nonsense, and passionate. I also think he has said one of the most true things about addiction: “You are as sick as your secrets.”
Eating disorders are different from drug / alcohol addictions, but there are definitely a lot of similarities. There are a lot of components of addiction treatment that I believe in and think are important, and should be …