Pauline Ninck Blok

Pauline Ninck Blok

All Articles by Pauline Ninck Blok

I moved to Italy in 2001, am originally Dutch, but was born in Africa and then lived in the Caribbean; as a child, my family moved around a lot. I have a degree in Italian language and literature. I freelance as an estate agent and as a translator. I am 46 years old and have two daughters. We love doing things together, like going to concerts, and travelling when possible. We have two dogs and a hamster. Even though I like living here, moving around is in my nature, so once my daughters are older, we might decide to move somewhere else. My youngest already says she can’t wait to move abroad, so we’ll just have to wait and see!

Moments of normalcy bring hope in the daily chaos of eating disorder recovery

Our life in survival mode continues. My daughter Summer and I have returned from another hospital admission and, like previously, are struggling to get back on track. The hospital admissions are always destabilising. We had hoped that a switch would magically turn in Summer’s head this time, but darkness remains. Summer is caught in a..

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The ups and downs of a single mother caring for a child with anorexia

Our journey in the terrifying world of anorexia nervosa continues. We have roller-coasted over the past few months, and my daughter, Summer*, has turned 11. We have made some giant steps forward and a few small ones backward. The biggest one backward is being hospitalised again. Summer had been making some huge steps in her..

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When a child develops anorexia, their family is plunged into the eating disorder world

It happened fast. Suddenly we were stuck in this black hole called anorexia nervosa. I had no idea how we’d gotten there so quickly, nor did I know how to get out. My 10-year-old (soon to be 11-year-old) daughter developed anorexia over the past year. Although she had probably already realised something was different inside..

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