Category: motherhood

As my 75th birthday approaches at the end of December 2025, I find myself standing at a gentle crossroads. It’s time to loosen my grip on one chapter of life so I can step more freely into the next. Eating disorders have been woven through my life since I was...

Guilt is a complicated concept. It is a noun, a verb, and an emotion, usually used to refer to having done something wrong. There is the guilt associated with having committed a crime against society, and then there is the guilt we place on ourselves for not being perfect–or in...

Curating almost 900 posts into themed e-books you can keep close If you’ve been with me a while—some of you since 2008—you know Life Stories Diary has grown into a gathering place: for people living with eating disorders, for families and health professionals, for life story writing, and for anyone...

It is surprising how life can change. A storm, a diagnosis. Two years ago, I was driving on the motorway, torrential rain pouring down, making it hard to see anything. Summer and I were on our way home, following a specialist’s appointment, trying to figure out what was going on...

I am often asked if I plan to write another book.  My answer is, “No, I’m living my next chapter.”  Four years have passed since the publication of my memoir, The Longest Match: Rallying to Defeat an Eating Disorder in Midlife.  Now is a good time to write about that...

For almost 20 years, I have sat down each week to write about eating disorders. I have written about the havoc they cause in minds, bodies, families, and communities. I have shared research, explained treatments, told stories of courage, survival, relapse, and resilience. I have laid bare my own lived...

There was a time when I didn’t know who I was. Not really. Not in the way that lets you walk into a room, make a choice, or even sit with your own thoughts and trust that they’re truly yours. Anorexia nervosa took hold of me when I was 11...

When I reached 55, after 44 years under the iron grip of anorexia nervosa, something inside me shifted. For the first time, I felt emphatically that I had crossed the threshold to a “51 per cent healthy self.” That moment wasn’t a magic cure—it was the hard-won payoff of decades...

Growing old isn’t a privilege I take for granted, but it isn’t easy in today’s youth-obsessed world. When I was in my 40s, I heard, “The golden years aren’t so golden.” I vowed never to say that and, at age 69, I’ve kept that promise. This doesn’t mean, however, that...

Realising that today’s teenage girls live in a world different from mine—that I’m a complete alien to them—makes me both uneasy and shiver. It aches, too, to think that their lives began from a random point in such recent years, detached from the schemes and backstories that shaped me. So,...