Tag: Anorexia

Mother’s Day is often a bittersweet holiday for the many of us who struggle with mother loss.  And mother loss wears many hats. Just recently, 36-year-old Lara came into my office in tears. “I went to buy a card for my mother,” Lara said, and proceeded to describe her frustration....

Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies. I am honest, trustworthy, loyal and fair. However, a part of me lurks in the shadows. A part of me that I try not to release and remain terrified that if seen will expose the ugliness within. This part of...

We crave to be loved, to be connected to our family and to feel at peace at home. When an eating disorder (ED) separates our mind from our body, “home” is no longer comfortable, and the disconnection drives us to meet our needs elsewhere. But this is never enough. By...

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”  Sigmund Freud A series of events inspired me to write A Dangerous Daughter. Firstly, in 2015, I was invited to take part in an international study on eating disorders, the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative. The results of the study were ground-breaking: scientists...

You are a “good enough” parent. Remember this. Twelve years after launching a blog to raise awareness of eating disorders, your stories continue to shine brightly on the dark crevices where the eating disorder hides. Your stories help us to help each other. Recently, a mother emailed from Europe. She had...

If only an eating disorder (ED) could show up on a scan. What a disgrace our public health sector is in Australia. I say “our” as it could be you, your mother, sister, or friend instead of me. My mother always said, “Do not air your dirty laundry to others,”...

Our next generation of young people are highly concerned about their body image. In fact, one in three 15-19-year-olds in Australia are “very” or “extremely concerned” (Tiller et al., 2020). Body image concerns are the major risk factor for the development of eating disorders (Culbert et al., 2015), which impact...

Flaws in our public health system* are creating havoc in the lives of people with eating disorders (EDs). I am a mentor for Shelley**, who is in her 40s, and lives in a country town in Australia. Shelley has diagnoses of severe depression and severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SEAN)....

From a clinical and research perspective, Eating Disorders (EDs) are interesting, almost unique, in that despite not wanting to have an ED, many people continue to engage in behaviour that can be dangerous and even deadly. More concerning is that people with an ED can often have a poor prognosis,...