….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 …

Laura Collins raised a GREAT question today — Does (mom’s) size matter? While I have a lot to say about the matter, two main points come to mind:
1. Mothers with eating disorders
I think that your mother’s weight and behaviors surrounding food are much more relevant in recovery than in the downward eating disorder spiral. Parents model for their kids — I’d argue that this is even true for adult kids (adult kids, ha — you know what I mean). While I think that the eating habits of …

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 …

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 …

Cammy wrote a post about an experience that I (and probably many individuals with eating disorders) have been able to relate to on many occasions–an appointment with an ED-ignorant physician.  It happens all the time, and sometimes the professionals are VERY nice… they just don’t know anything about eating disorders.  So, rather than commandeer her comments with my own experiences, I thought I’d dedicate a post to some of the more frustrating remarks that I’ve received from doctors (and nurses–not dietitians, therapists, psychiatrists, etc.  I’ll save those for another day).

The …

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 have just been waiting to write about this article all day!
“The [UK] government has earmarked £173m to increase the number of cognitive behavioural therapists in the NHS.””Professor Mick Cooper, an expert in counselling at the University of Strathclyde, told the conference at the University of East Anglia that although he welcomed the increased funding for psychological therapies, the focus on CBT was not logical.
He and three colleagues from the UK and US issued a statement saying there had been more studies on CBT, but that did not necessarily mean …

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 …

Choosing a therapist these days can be like ordering a drink from Starbucks:
I’ll have a grande CBT lite DBT Gestalt-free psychotherapy with two shots of psychoanalysis and breve IPT.
This image came to mind have after dinner with a friend last night. She’s been in therapy for several years, and has decided to switch to someone with “a little more of a CBT focus… who still integrates interpersonal therapy but spends less time talking about family.” Hmm… good luck with that search, Rach.
The reality of it is, there are …