New Body Problem = the thoughts and feelings that arise when we move through physical change in Anorexia recovery. I got an email this week from a person in a state of despair because he has weight restored somewhat and doesn’t like his weight-restored body. Mostly his despair was due […]
Tabitha Farrar talks to Hana Zickgraf about a recently published research paper titled: Adult picky eaters with symptoms of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: comparable distress and comorbidity but different eating behaviors compared to those with disordered eating symptoms Link to orginal study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5086050/ Study summary Picky eaters are people who […]
The short answer here is “No.” You do not need talk therapy in order to reach full remission from Anorexia. However, you might want it, in which case you should have it. Before we get into it, remember that weight restoration is one step in recovery, and re-wiring mental processes is another. […]
As if recovery wasn’t already difficult enough from a mental standpoint, there are often physical discomforts too! This blog post is about stomach in Anorexia recovery. Reading this blog post will not make your tummy feel better, but it may provide you with some knowledge that will make you feel […]
I’ll preface this blog post with this: this post is about intuitive eating and Anorexia recovery. If you don’t have Anorexia, go ahead and do all the intuitive eating that your intuition asks you to do —this post is not about you. I agree that intuitive eating may be a […]
Recovery from Anorexia certainly becomes easier to maintain with time, however, large and stressful life events can make even the most solidly recovered individual feel dodgy all of a sudden. When the shit hits the fan, even the most dormant Anorexia behaviors will make a bid for pole position again. Anorexia […]
I wrote about Anorexia and exercise last week and the case for cold turkey. This post is the follow up to that and it addresses lower-level, movement. If you read the last post and thought “well that doesn’t apply to me because I don’t exercise excessively,” this post is for […]
Dr: “Are you eating?” Me: “Yes” Dr: “Hmm … Well. you are still very underweight, so maybe try eating a bit more?” Me: “Sure, I’ll try that.” What my Dr never asked me about was the extent that I was exercising. I was eating, but that was on the condition […]
I have a nutrition qualification, but I don’t use it. In fact, what I was taught about nutrition on that course set me back a good couple of years in recovery. I was taught that fat was bad, calories should be minimized, meals should be planned as to balance macronutrients, and […]
While it may be broadly understood that effective knowledge, diagnostics, treatment and resources for eating disorders are lacking, I think that until certain parts of this system are conceptually overhauled we will continue to only see change and improvements happen slowly, and on the fringe rather than in the mainstream treatment model. […]
Anorexia: You can’t have that bagel for lunch. That would be a breach of Rule #382 Me: Rule #382? Anorexia: Yes, rule #382: Bagel for breakfast cannot be followed by bagel for lunch. Rule #382 Me: Since when did that rule exist? That wasn’t there before. Anorexia: You weren’t eating […]
Not a usual post from me. I just want to tell you about the upcoming Boulder, Colorado workshop I am offering May 20-12. Actually first of all I want to tell you about a free ED-ucation on Eating Disorders Seminar that I am presenting at in Canada next week. I […]
When we start trying to control weight, food intake, and energy balance artificially we are messing with a system what we know too little about. Nutritional science is too immature to really know how and when the body uses energy and for what. In recovery from Anorexia as an adult […]
I got the below email and decided that I would answer it in blog post because I think that these are questions that many adults in Anorexia recovery will have from time to time. Other than removing the writer’s name I have posted the email in it’s entirety. My responses […]
There are certainly problems that arise with “target weights” in Anorexia recovery. The biggest, overarching theme is that they are set too low. I wrote about this in length in this post titled Anorexia Recovery: Why is it that treatment seems to serve my eating disorder better than it serves my […]
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I don’t expect everyone to read this and agree with it. The TL;DR is that I believe that there is a fear that infests many eating disorder treatment approaches and this leads to inadequate intake prescriptions and target weights that do not serve individuals in recovery. Please read the whole post […]
This post contains swear words. This is not an apology, I’m just letting you know. 😀 When I went though what I refer to now as my “Mid-Recovery Clusterfuck” I didn’t know what it was. I thought that — despite considering myself at the furthest end of the insanity scale […]
One of the questions I get asked the most by both sufferers and parents/partners of sufferers is; “how did you find the motivation to recover?” often followed closely by, “how do I find the motivation to recover?” or “how does he/she find the motivation to recover?” These are very important questions […]
I’m not someone who berates herself for not getting everything right. Contrary to popular belief about people with Anorexia, I am not a perfectionist, not Type A, and don’t really care if I get an A, B, or C so long as it is a pass. I don’t like failing […]
Today I am going to look at a somewhat awkward but nonetheless important idea: the notion that the eating behaviours of children could in fact act as triggers or stumbling points for the a parent in recovery from a restrictive eating disorder such as Anorexia. Picky eating? Interestingly, according […]
Phew. That was a busy week. In case you missed them, here is a recap on the podcasts and other projects we put out there this week. I’ve listed the podcasts out below. I think that the most exciting thing that came out of this week for me personally were […]
I am excited to announce that this week we launched Active Eating Disorder Recovery for Adults (AEDRA) Meal Support Service. This is a worldwide service where any person can receive support at a mealtime to help overcome anxiety. We also have post meal support slots available for people who struggle […]
When I went through extreme hunger in my recovery from Anorexia, my eating disorder told me that nobody on earth had ever experienced this. Mostly it told me that nobody on earth had eaten as much as I was eating. Ever. Since working as a recovery coach for lots of […]
When in recovery from a restrictive eating disorder such as Anorexia Nervosa or a subset of it, many of us experience something I like to refer to as “recovery binges.” This post is written from the point of view of a person who has recovered from Anorexia, but can be […]
