anorexic handwriting: small, meticulous, and linear — font-like.
I’ve been told more than once that I have “anorexic handwriting.” Aside from the fact that this label is very non-PC, I never really put eating disorders and handwriting together. When I was inpatient, I remember this girl had really, REALLY tiny handwriting. We’re talking microscopic, get out your magnifying glass-tiny. I’ve had both a nutritionist and therapist refer to my handwriting as “anorexic.” How exactly are you supposed to respond to that, by the way? Um, …

This is nothing new, but everyone seems to be on some kind of diet.  Or, if they’re not “dieting,” then they are eating purely organic food, or only raw foods, or cutting out all white flour and sugar.  All of this leads me to ask myself — if this kind of eating is “healthy” or “okay” for the rest of the world, why isn’t it okay for me?
I think that the line between healthy and disordered is so fuzzy (grey territory, I’d say).  Eating organic is healthy.  Raw foods are …

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 …

You think that the only truth that matters is that truth can be measured. Good intentions don’t count. What’s in your heart doesn’t count. Caring doesn’t count.
–Moriarty, House M.D. No Reason

The belief that “things don’t count” has always been a huge obstacle for me in recovery. Maybe originally I used the eating disorder to physically communicate something that I couldn’t verbalize… or maybe it was a manifestation of an unspoken problem that had to surface somehow. Or maybe I just had the biology + trauma = anorexia equation …

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 …

From an Episode of House, MD: Episode 3-12, One Day, One Room

In case you haven’t seen it, a girl has been raped and refuses to talk about the trauma. These are the last lines of the episode.
CUDDY: She’s gonna be okay.
HOUSE: Yeah, it’s that simple.
CUDDY: She’s talking about what happened. That’s huge. You did good.
HOUSE: Everyone will tell you… that that’s what we gotta make her do. We have to help her, right? Except we can’t. We drag out her story. Tell each other that it’ll help her heal. …

Top 10 Eating Disorder Controversies:
(In my opinion, and not in order of importance)

Full recovery is possible (to the point of being “cured”)
EDs are symptoms of a deep-seeded childhood trauma or toxic environment
Treatment should not be forced upon those who don’t feel ready to recover
Weight gain goals should be 100% of ideal body weight
Meal plans and/or monitored exchange/calorie counting is necessary
Without working through the underlying psychological causes of the eating disorder, one cannot completely recover
Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder are all on one disordered eating continuum
Society is largely to blame …

This could have been such a great article, had the question just been tweaked a little bit. (Therapy Watch: Diving In – How quickly should you open up in therapy?) Rather than “How quickly should you open up in therapy?” I think that “How quickly do you open up in therapy?” Or, since the article paneled all therapists…. “How quickly do your patients open up in therapy?”
I think that there are few “shoulds” in therapy (although I can think of a lot of should-nots!), but I am curious to …