Category: advocacy

Calorie is a word laden with myriad connotations imposed by diet culture, a word that can be so insidious that I’ve hesitated to write about it. From the impressionable age of 11, I became aware of my body in a new, mysterious way. In tandem with entering that confusing and...

Anorexia very nearly stole my life. After 15 years in what can only be described as a living hell, I was told I had only a few weeks to live; my dear body couldn’t hold on any longer. I could feel myself slipping away; after more than a decade of...

When the news broke, I couldn’t ignore it. The deceased young woman was reportedly at the Korean hospital for treatment of a weight loss drug addiction. News portals showed CCTV (closed circuit TV) footage of the woman, where she was forcibly restrained on a bed by hospital staff whose large...

“Why does eating disorder recovery have so many curve balls?” A middle-aged woman asked this today. An eating disorder trigger was tempting her, and she was bravely reaching out for support. The holiday season and long weekends, which most people love, are difficult for her. With members of her usual...

I am not anorexic. I never was anorexic. I am in recovery from anorexia, which is a parasitic, all-consuming mental condition that sucked the joy out of every aspect of my life like a Dementor*. But even though anorexia controlled most of my life, I never wanted it to be...

Living a part-life with an eating disorder (ED) is like spending half your life in prison – without committing a crime. The picture that accompanies this story was taken the day my daughter celebrated her 21st birthday. I was 46 years old and an inpatient at a private mental health...

I’ve always considered apathy to be negative. The dictionary defines apathy as a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Conducting a little research about apathy and whether it’s considered an emotion, I was interested to discover it’s actually a lack of emotion, which makes perfect sense. Apathy is the opposite...

Until a few months ago, my diaries and I had been inseparable for more than 60 years. We had stuck together despite moving house more than 24 times in my search for peace within. Never a day apart. The diaries were my one constant from age 12. They were my...

I have suffered from an eating disorder (ED) for 18 years, and I don’t know how to break free … I would like you to share strategies for those times when my ED is the only thing I can hear.  – M. I want to reach through the email box,...

I usually say it all started in 2020 when I was 14, but I don’t know if that’s true. I mean, yeah, that’s when I began to lose weight, but I hated myself well before then. My family had been on and off “family diets” since I was young. I...