Category: Issues

I was born on January 1, 1968, with my feet turned backwards—a physical reminder of a drug that changed the course of thousands of lives. That drug was thalidomide. Thalidomide was introduced in the 1950s and early 1960s to help pregnant women with morning sickness. It was affordable, available without...

With my co-author, Professor Daniel Le Grange, I’m delighted to announce the worldwide release of My Kid is Back, Second Edition. We thank families from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand for contributing to this new book’s powerful message about Family-Based Treatment (FBT), the most effective...

Imagine a Global Board that listens to “everyone” in the eating disorder field. What a difference it could make to lives everywhere! The vision for a Global Board comes from the indefatigable Elissa Myers, former chief staff executive of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED). Under Elissa’s proposed model, a...

As the sole host of Korea’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW), I am researching the themes and issues to be covered in the seven sessions of our third event in February 2025. To fully understand and engage with these topics, I immerse myself deeply, processing them, formulating insightful questions to...

Nobody likes being told, “You’re a loser.” The word “loser” immediately conjures up feelings of inadequacy, failure, and shame. The only place I can think of where “a loser” is considered noble and revered is in diet culture and the weight loss industry, where “loss” is even in the name....

My name is Tiacoh Hyacinthe-Arnaud Yao Kpri Junior II. I know, it’s long … very long, actually. But it’s necessary for the rest of my story. I was born into a family with two children, and I was the eldest. Then, miraculously, my mother gave birth to twins at age...

I was 15 when my father noticed money missing from his wallet. He asked if I had taken it. I said, “No.” However, after hours of being accused of taking drugs and screamed at to the point of having spit on my face and crawling into a ball in the...

A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-2021, was the gift of time to embark on the incredible journey of writing my memoir The Longest Match: Rallying to Defeat an Eating Disorder in Midlife. A project of this magnitude always seemed daunting but as soon as I began pouring through...

My eating disorder has gone to Canberra, Australia’s national capital. The eating disorder has travelled there within the pages of my diary collection, acquired by the National Library of Australia (NLA). There, the eating disorder will be open to public scrutiny. Canberra is an eight-hour road journey from where I...

A decade ago, my husband and I purchased an elliptical machine from a store that specialized in exercise equipment. The purchase price included a complementary session with a personal trainer. We took advantage of this offer, mostly to get some valuable pointers on how to use the machine and all...