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.

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…

This is the fifth post in the Grey Thinking series, Five of the most underrated coping skills.
I’m not sure that “crafting” really encompasses the coping skill that I want to mention, but it’s the best term that I could come up with.  When I say “crafting,” I mean any of the following:

coloring
making collages
sudoku /crossword puzzles
word searches
computer solitaire
kitting
drawing / painting
origami

…see my point?  Semi-creative (and low-stress) activities that keep your hands busy.  I don’t know what it is about keeping my hands busy, but it really helps with the anxiety.
Personally, I prefer …

While I do have several new posts on the way, I want to highlight a couple of older Grey Thinking posts (some are several years old!  I bet you were not reading GT two years ago) that talk specifically about treatment, your attitude toward treatment, recovery expectations, etc.  While there are a couple of people that I have in mind when it comes to the subject of these posts, I think that everyone can use the refresher.
You as your own case manager
Originally Posted: 01/01/2009
I wish that all these …

Everyone should go and read the discussion about this post — so many interesting things have been said from people with very different beliefs about the cause and treatment of eating disorders.  One question stood out to me, though:
Who would you go to if your child was ill?
I’m going to change the question a little bit:  What would you do if your child were ill?
I’ve thought about this a lot since “discovering” the Maudsley Method (I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago).  Maudsley contradicts many …

“You get to define which experiences are traumatic for you, whether or not it would impact others in the same manner.  It’s not the objective facts that determine whether an event is traumatic,  but your own emotional experience of the event.”
– Dr. Kathleen Young

This is just a quick post, but I read this on a trauma blog tonight and thought it was so well-put.  This is something that i struggle with a lot — whether or not something “counts” as significant.  Maybe I am making it up.  Maybe it was …

I can’t remember the last time I saw “economist” and “bulimia” in the same headline — I usually don’t put the two together.  However, this article (Eating-Disorders Experts Challenge Economists’ Conclusions About Bulimia) made some pretty interesting statements:

Bulimia Nervosa (BN) is an addiction rather than an eating disorder
Black females are 50% more likely to be bulimic than white females
“Bulimic behavior” is less likely among wealthier, better-educated families.

You should definitely read the article, but I have a couple of things to add to these points:
1. BN is an addiction
I always compare …

I stumbled upon this article last week:  Metabolic Assessment of Menstruating and Nonmenstruating Normal Weight Adolescents This is something that I have always been curious about — is amenorrhea associated with a low metabolic rate?  I always assumed yes, at least a little bit.  However, I didn’t really base this conclusion on any hard science.  Let’s say that I used “Grey Science,” which goes something like this:
Your body requires a certain number of calories to function at full-capacity.  When you chronically deprive your body of these calories, it has to …

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve added a poll to Grey Thinking’s sidebar (on the front page of the blog). I’ve thought about doing polls before, and while this one is not particularly creative, it is something that I’ve been wondering — how did you find out about GT?
I promise that future polls will be more interesting….
[polldaddy poll=1374335]

Coloring aside (and other “active meditation,” I guess), there is something that I hate about meditation (guided imagery especially). Deep breathing maybe helps me when I’m starting to freak out, but I think that’s because I’m telling myself “chill, take a moment, calm down, relax, collect yourself, you’ll be okay.” However, breathing deeply does stop my heart from beating so quickly.
Meditation is different though. I think it’s frustrating and I feel so impatient with it. It’s supposed to be calming, but really it just wears on …