What does the eating disorder steal from your holidays?
1. Time spent with friends and family
2. Holiday spirit
3. The world outside of treatment
4. Holiday food
5. Almost a whole season of the year that’s different from any other time

This afternoon, my husband and I went and saw the movie “Everything Must Go.”  In general, I’m not much of a movie watcher.  It’s funny how I can watch a House marathon all day, but run out of patience about 2/3rds of the way through a film.  Anyway, when I heard the movie had Will Ferrell and was about alcoholism, I obviously had to go.
First, as a kind of sidenote, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a serious Will Ferrell movie.  I didn’t really even know it was possible, actually, …

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 …

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…

When I saw an ED study with “All Better?” in the title, I of course had to read it.  Often when a friend or my husband asks me how an appointment was, I say “I’m cured!”  Maybe I’ll switch it up with “All better” in the future.  Anyway, this was a great article — one that I could write many posts on (and maybe will?). It’s really interesting to hear how patients define recovery and make treatment decisions. It’s also kind of amazing how similar thoughts/behaviors can be …

Recently, my friend and I were discussing the pros/cons of her stepping up the level of care in her treatment. Interestingly, “eating in program” was on both the pro and con list. She thinks it’s easier to eat while in program (as opposed to on your own), but that some of the food sucks and you have to eat things you don’t like (or are not comfortable with).
I can definitely relate to this. When you first start a higher level of care (like IOP, PHP, IP – anything involving a …

Everyone has heard the phrase about things having to get worse before getting better. However, it doesn’t say MAKE things worse so that they can get better. It doesn’t exactly work like that. I see a couple of different situations where people “try to get out of the eating disorder by going [further] into their eating disorder”:

I could not, would not, on a boat.
I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain.
I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! You let me be!

The emperor allows himself to be duped because of his own self-delusions. Therapy, she says, deceived her into thinking she was in more in control of what was happening to her than she was and that “through reason, determination and an outlay of cash” she would be able to overcome a lifelong depression.”