Tag: Anorexia Nervosa

“Recovery” is a treacherous word that is spoken about freely by people who have admitted they live with an addiction. From drugs to alcohol, eating disorders, workaholism, depression, anxiety, control, overthinking, self-harm or perfectionism, none of us are perfect yet many of us find a way to hold our pain...

Feeling misunderstood is one of the most difficult and emotionally painful aspects when experiencing an eating disorder. My parents and sister, after decades of witnessing behaviours driven by my illness, gave up trying to understand me. Do I blame them? No. I accept that they did not understand my illness....

Often, during recovery, I never wanted to hear the term “eating disorder” again. Why then, have I embraced the term and become involved in eating disorder advocacy? Why not shut out the eating disorder experience and pretend the big gap that the illness ate in my life never happened? Maybe...

Sam Tench was recovering from a major life challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. She had just hit upon writing and photography as a way of cultivating connection with her healthy self after years in the clutches of a long-term eating disorder. Only a month or two...

5:53am. I watch the morning sun become brighter through the cracks in my window, just as I watch the sun fade into darkness at night. Nights are lonely. My anxiety rises as the sun drops lower. Time does not stop. The incessant ticking inside my head is a perpetual reminder...

My eating disorder started when I was 15 and in Year 10. My illness was probably triggered by multiple factors, but the one I remember most was having to weigh myself in the physical education class as part of our fitness testing. I noticed that I was gaining weight but...

When Dad died, an eating disorder helped me to get through each day. This imaginary podcast describes the impact on my grief: Transcript from the Good Grief Conversations podcast, Episode 126, October 25, 2021: INTERVIEWER: Good morning. I’m your host, Susannah Johns. Today we talk about grief with Tanya Motiani, who...

The most important thing you can do when assisting someone with an eating disorder is to prepare by educating yourself as much as possible about eating disorders. You will need to constantly remind yourself that behind this illness is the person you are trying to reach and care for. The...

Speaking to Dr Daniela Araujo about what to write in this blog post, I asked what she thought was special about the exchange of poems that have flown back and forth around the world between Chile, Brazil, and now Australia. The conversation went something like the following. Dani paused for...

To eat and be placed in a holding yard is neither helpful, effective nor holistic when trying to recover from an eating disorder (ED). While hospital is useful and often necessary, our health system is like a bucket full of water. One that has so many holes that it is...