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 …

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’m a sucker for lists… especially top-10 lists. So, when I saw a post on the Top 10 Cracks That Addicts Fall Through on Their Way to Recovery, it had my name all over it.
I think that a lot of the same principles that Mark Goulston points out can apply to mental illness in general. A few of them really stood out to me:
Failure to develop new and healthy relationships
I see this two ways:

Old relationships – maintaining unhealthy relationships (people who drag you down in any way, …

I’ve recently started watching Grey’s Anatomy again. I got behind (really behind) and always thought I would catch up… but it hasn’t happened, so I’m just going to have to go back and watch the last season at some point. That might not happen for awhile, though, so I’m just picking up with the current season and moving on.
A lot of Meredith’s monologes hit home with me, but she said something the other day about surgery and recovery that really hit me:
“The goal of any surgery is total …

Sometimes I think that blankets should be banned in group therapy. Now really, how much are you getting out of group if your head is under the blanket?

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 …

In anticipation of the third season of “In Treatment” starting this fall, I’ve been “re-watching” season one. I say “re-watching” because I never finished watching it in the first place.  When I first started watching the show, I would watch one patient at a time — week one through week nine. Then I would choose another patient, and watch him/her for all nine weeks. I could do this since I had the DVDs.
This time, I’ve been watching the series as intended — week by week, with all …

Several weeks ago I wrote a post — that I never published — titled, “I need an iPad for recovery.” There has been a lot of negative press about eating disorders and technology, so in contrast I’m going to explain how I’ve used my iPhone / iPad to aid my recovery…

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…

It has occurred to me lately how often I say “I don’t know” in my appointments (possibly even more often than I say “I know” !). My therapist has come to totally disregard the phrase, which for me, has become very versatile:

Type 1: the how-did-you-feel-in-that-situation “I don’t know”