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 …

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…

While mental illnesses are to some extent social constructions, the thing about research is that you are creating new knowledge by observing and writing about it. While new diagnoses may be fads, they also are probably worthy of additional study and analysis. It’s only through additional study that scientists can determine if…

Several years ago, I had a therapist who called herself “a recovering perfectionist.” While I thought that was clever, it wasn’t really something that I personally wanted to strive for. Sure, perfectionism can be hugely problematic and maladaptive…

The line, “You are a human being, not a human being,” would be on my “top 10 overused phrases in therapy” list (were such a list to exist). However, this concept was the first thing to come to mind when I was reading the article, The Reward of Doing “Something”:
People have this inclination to do more, even if what they do is trivial.
Experiments have shown that the desire for activity is quite strong; people will go to a lot of trouble to maintain their desired level of activity, which can …

I’ve been reading a lot of articles this week on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.  As someone who has unsuccessfully tried way too many medications, this is really interesting to me.  It’s no secret that individuals often have to try several psychotropic medications to find one that works for them.  It’s part of the psych experience fun.
The “Is this going to work for me?  Which of the hundred side effects am I going to experience?” mystery reminds me of this food seasoning that my uncle has, called “magic dust.”  The “magic” is …

Lately Portia de Rossi’s book, “Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain” has received a lot of attention. While I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I have probably read a dozen articles reviewing it. In fact, I think I’m the only one who hasn’t read the book.

It was really weird for me to look at anxiety as some positive indicator of change rather than some big red “stop! uncomfortableness ahead!” sign. If I were waiting for recovery to be comfortable, it was never going to happen. Challenging the eating disorder was never going to feel good (at least not while still in the thick of it).