Tag: writing

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...

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...

Family Based Treatment is the best, evidence-based approach for most children and adolescents to get their life back on track when they develop an eating disorder – particularly anorexia nervosa. But what about those of us whose eating disorders developed before Family Based Treatment (FBT) became an option? Or those...

Writing about one’s life is like walking along a gravelled country road, picking up a dusty stone, and giving it a good rub to reveal the gem within. Often all that’s needed is a bit of a dust-off, a sprinkling of self-belief and encouragement, and away we go. Especially when...

Isn‘t a story something with a beginning, a main part and a hopefully happy ending? I am not sure I can structure those past years of my life in such a way. Especially with the focus on my eating disorder. Thinking of its starting point, there are only assumptions to draw...

Writing with the guidance of a writing mentor can assist the healing process by enabling self-discoveries. Tanya Motiani, who has severe anorexia nervosa, shares how writing is helping her to discover ‘potential for contentment’: Since starting to work with a writing mentor two years ago, I have made discoveries about myself,...

By Karyn Braveheart She saw the advertisement in the local paper. It looked genuine at first, but then she started to have a few doubts. “Best I ring,” she said to herself, so she decided it might be a good idea to jot down a few things she needed to...

I recently wrote a short story about a little girl. I wrote about her pain and confusion. I wrote about her loneliness and, also, about glimmers of hope and happiness she carried in her heart. I wrote about her amazing sense of intuition, intelligence, compassion, responsibility and her incredible inner...

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....