“However, there are those who adopt extreme thinness as a lifestyle choice. Such people – aspiring anorexics, or “wannarexics” – are more representative of what you may be seeing in your daughter. Wannarexics imitate the behaviour of those with eating disorders so as to be, for example, a size zero. They are generally underweight but are not anorexic, as their behaviours are not as extreme.”
“Wannarexia comes from wanting to fit in. Girls as young as 5 identify greater weight with lesser popularity; they want to be Barbie. Pre-teens learn that …

I don’t even remember how I ran across this article today: Pro-anorexia websites inspire controversial photo exhibit
A controversial new photo exhibits opens tonight in Washington D.C. that has many people grimacing in disgust. The exhibit features a collection of work by German photographer Ivonne Thein and is titled ‘Thirty-Two Kilos.’ If your math is rusty, thirty-two kilos is roughly seventy pounds. Why is that important? The collection of photographs features extremely emaciated models.
I really think the only unique part about this exhibit is the title (while very sick, it is …

….to New Years Resolutions.  Resist the temptation.  There is something contagious about setting them, becuase even I (who am adamently opposed to the tradition) start to create a mental resolution list after the 5th email that I receive on “Top Resolutions” or “Tips for setting resolutions.”  Especially when I run across ones with items like “give yourself permission to be human” and “get the rest you need” (WebMD ) — because those sound like GOOD resolutions.  Still, don’t do it!
Why am I so opposed?  Well, to name a few…

One in …

Well, I am officially the last one to jump on the “New Psychotherapy Has Potential to Treat Majority Of Cases Of Eating Disorders” article. I’ll admit, this journalist did a great job with his headline — not only did I read the article, but I went on to read up on CBT-E.
To quickly define CBT, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Eating Disorders explains:
The strategy underpinning CBT-E is to construct a ‘formulation’ (or set of hypotheses) of the processes that are maintaining the patient’s psychopathology and use it to identify …

I am officially the LAST person to blog about this study, but my thoughts seem to be pointed in a different from the other posts that I’ve read.
The Psych Central article, “Half of Young Adults Have Mental Disorder,” states the following:
“A total of 45.8 percent of college students and 47.7 percent of young adults not in college met the criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder.
The most common disorders in college students were alcohol use disorders (20.4 percent) and personality disorders (17.7 percent), whereas those not in college most frequently …

In the past several weeks, I’ve received no less than two dozen “avoid holiday weight gain” and “no-guilt Thanksgiving” emails. Even with the holiday being over, I am sure that the onslaught of emails will continue–just with the word “Holiday” in place of “Thanksgiving.”
What amazed me about these articles is how disordered some of the advice is. While there are a lot of healthy suggestions out there (like “Don’t skip breakfast” and “Focus on friends and family rather than the food”), I have so many examples of unhealthy …

I ran across an article on The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt’s blog, about “Eating Disorders in Adult Women.”  This topic is becoming increasingly popular in ED news… probably because more and more adult women are reaching out and asking for help.  In fact, Renfrew says that a quarter of their patients are over 35.  Anyway, the article interviews Dr. Trisha Gura, medical journalist and author of Lying in Weight: The Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women.
According to the article, adult women don’t seek treatment because:

They …

This is, by far, the most interesting article that I’ve read in a long time: Caring for the Chronically Remitting Anorexia Nervosa Patient
According to Dr. Michael Strober, most people who develop anorexia nervosa will not remain in an acute malnourished state throughout their entire lives, although a significant minority of people have varying levels of illness over decades.

I think this highlights an important point — that you can’t be severely malnourished for years. There have to be points of better physical health in there… why? Because something is …

Wall Street Journal: Text Messaging for Health
I guess it’s about time that someone came up with a big word for “texting your therapist / nutritionist / doctor.” Honestly, my healthcare providers are just starting to utilize email in their practices. I have no doubt that they check their email in their personal lives (or at least I hope they do), but their work email? I would never email my doctor or therapist if I needed something urgent. Or by the end of the week.
In fact, the …

I saw this interesting article today: What you say, what the anorexic hears.
While I think that this post is a great idea… I didn’t find these thoughts to be true to my experience. In my case, things were more like this:
WHAT YOU SAY: “You look so thin!”
WHAT THE ANOREXIC HEARS: “You have an eating disorder and I can tell.”
WHAT YOU SAY: “I’m glad to see you’ve put on a little weight — you were getting way too thin!”
WHAT THE ANOREXIC HEARS: “I’m so glad to …