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.

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 …

Recently, my therapist started leading a group that I’m in. Most people who’ve done any kind of intense treatment (inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, etc), have probably had this experience (myself included) but it’s pretty rare that my therapist now either facilitates or…

I wasn’t measuring his food or anything, but realized that I was filling up his bowl more often. To top it off, our pet sitter said something to me about it one day. Her words were, “So why is he eating so much? You know, he’s gaining weight and adult dogs aren’t supposed to.” This made me angry for a couple of reasons…

{fade to the vultures sitting on a dead tree}
Buzzy: Hey, Flaps, what we gonna do?
Flaps: I don’t know. What you wanna do?
Ziggy: I got it! Let’s flap over to the east side of the jungle! They’ve always got a bit of action, a bit of a swinging scene.  All right?
Buzzy: Ah, come off it! Things are right dead all over.
Ziggy: You mean you wish they were! [laughs]
Dizzy: Very funny.
Buzzy: Okay, so what we gonna do?
Flaps: I don’t know, what you wanna do?
Buzzy: Look, Flaps, …

You know what? I don’t want to be friends, either. Oddly enough, the professionals I like are the ones who make my eating disorder angry. I respect them and trust them more since they’re not compromising with my eating disorder. And there are lots of times that I complain, don’t follow their recommendations, and am generally pissed off — but I still like them.

I’ve been in an outpatient eating disorders group for awhile now.  There’s nothing special about it — it’s just a weekly / bi-weekly group at a treatment center, with women of all ages and ED diagnoses Everyone either has to be in outpatient therapy at the center or have done some kind of intense treatment there.   The latter is definitely the norm — most patients have stepped done from day treatment or IOP.
What’s weird right now is the make-up of the group: 5 restricting-anorexics and 2 binge eaters.  I …

Over the weekend, I had my first experience with Panera’s new calorie-labelled menus.  Honestly, I order the same couple of things every time, so the menus may have been there for a couple of weeks and I just haven’t noticed.  Regardless, I was a little shocked to see them.
I’ve been trying to figure out what it is that bothers me about having them there.  I’ve looked up the nutrition facts a hundred times, so it’s not like I’m seeing the calorie count for the first time.  Plus, I still ordered …

In Agile development, the focus factor (or productivity factor) is used for planning to help determine how many “real hours” you have to work on something. It’s the difference between “real hours” and “ideal hours.” I was thinking about how the eating disorder would affect my focus factor, and tried to break down the components into a pie chart…

As someone who’s struggled with an eating disorder for longer than I would like to admit, I’ve definitely had periods of falling into the “I suck at recovery” trap. It connects directly to the “I am wasting everyone’s time and don’t deserve help” trap as well as the “I’m actually fine and asking for too much because I’m attention-seeking like that” trap. And let’s not forget…