I have mixed feelings about putting adolescents and adults together in treatment. I have been on both sides of the equation (treatment as an adolescent and treatment as an adult), and definitely have a stronger opinion about it now that I’m older.
Pros:

Adolescents can learn a lot from adults who often have been in treatment before and have some more insight into the disorder.
Adults are (hopefully) more mature and less competitive. Eating disorders in general are competitive… and I’ve just found that when you have a large group of …

I’d never heard of a “Sober Coach” until watching VH1′s “Sober House.” In the last episode (I think), Will, who is Seth’s Sober Coach, accompanies him to his first concert and make sure that nothing happens to jeopardize his sobriety. While watching this I thought, “Well that’s convenient — I could use someone protecting me from anything eating disordered.”
Upon thinking about it a little more, though, I wasn’t sure what this Anti-ED Coach would protect me from. Would he make sure no one served me diet coke? …

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 …

It’s been a little while since I talked about Celebrity Rehab, but I have been meaning to write about Gary Busey’s “Buseyisms” (by the way, I highly recommend that you watch this — it’s less than two minutes long).  Buseyisms are really just made-up acronyms.  Backward acronyms, I guess, but you start with the acronym and come up with the meaning to match the letters.
I’m sure you’ve heard these before… like FINE – Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.  Now, look at a few of Gary’s…
Doubt – Debating On Understanding Bewildering …

I read an article this morning on dentists diagnosing eating disorders. It’s actually something that I’ve always wondered about… mainly because I was always scared that my dentist would call me out on the ED. It’s funny how having a doctor say something about my eating disorder felt oddly validating (maybe because I needed someone to say that I wasn’t okay for my feeling crappy to count), but having the dentist make a comment was mortifying.
I have never gone to the dentist and wanted anything to be wrong. …

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]

I’ll admit it — sometimes I color. I print out some coloring pages and whip out the colored pencils and plug away for a couple of hours. Often I feel ridiculous afterwards — I’ll sit there looking at my finished pictures and think, “What the heck do I do with this now?” Then I’ll think about how coloring is the least productive thing I could possibly do (aside from possibly watching television). Couldn’t I have done a Sudoku puzzle? There is at least some thinking …

Do you ever feel like this in therapy? You’re talking about something random that happened in your childhood that you’re nearly POSITIVE has nothing to do with your issues today?
For example….
Before kindergarten I got to try out three different schools — and my parents did not send me to the one that I liked! And then I had to play with this girl who my mom was friends with who I did not get along with. Trauma! Oh, and there was this boy in kindergarten who …

I had never really heard the word “safe” used in a non-physically risky context until my first inpatient stay. After that, I hardly could describe what I was feeling without using the word. Feeling “unsafe” was like saying I felt not-okay + restless + fearful + on-edge + anxious + in danger. It’s hard to explain because it is just this underlying/unconscious/indescribable feeling.
When I stumbled upon this article (Safety Can Be Learned – And Helps Combat Depression), everything seemed to just make sense — the fear conditioning …

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 …