Tag: inpatient
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For Parents
First things first: I want to give you a hug. What you’re going through, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Every day you put on armor to go into battle, and I know, it’s exhausting. It’s scary. It’s exasperating. It’s heartbreaking. For lack of a better word, it just sucks. I was recently talking…
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For the Hard Days in Recovery
As I mentioned in my last post, in every girl’s recovery, there will come a time known as The Moment. It is the moment when she realizes that her body is actually filling out; and it is in this Moment that she literally becomes paralyzed with fear and freaks out that she is going to…
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The Truth About Weight Restoration
As I’ve mentioned before, anorexia is not about the weight. It’s about the Lie that is feeding her eating disorder, and causing her such intense self-hatred, which manifests itself in eating disorder behaviors. And that true healing comes only when that Lie – that Voice of ED – is silenced and replaced with the Truth:…
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To Those in the Throes
To Those in the Throes: Hello, sweet girl. First of all, thank you for reading this. Thank you for taking a moment to pause your brain to do something good for yourself. That’s a win – Something to be proud of. First of all, I want you to know that I have been where you…
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How I Actually Got Better
So let’s recap so far: First and foremost, we know that in order to get better, SHE has to WANT to get better. Period. No one can make her get better but herself. She has to make the decision to give up her eating disorder. Secondly, we know that to recover, she needs to a)…
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The Voice of ED – Revealed
One of the things that gets tossed around when talking about anorexia and eating disorders, is this notion of the “Voice of ED.” I remember when I first got to inpatient, all the girls and the staff would talk about, “ED this” and the “voice of ED, that.” To be honest, at first, I thought…
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Vanity, Guilt, and Shame
Let’s talk about a topic that is often misunderstood about eating disorders: Vanity. That’s the thing. People think that girls with anorexia are so vain and beauty-obsessed. And although that may be true from the onset, like everything else in ED’s path, that gets bastardized and tainted into darkness. You see, that’s the confusing thing:…
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The Million Dollar Question
So now for the Million Dollar Question: What can I do? How can I help her? How can I reach the girl I used to know, who is being controlled by the eating disorder? It’s a two part answer that I’ll get to in a minute, so stay with me. Allow me to first set the stage.…
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The Truth about Relapse
Let’s talk about relapse… Statistically speaking, one third of people with eating disorders relapse after they “recover.” This is for a variety of reasons, but my main guess is that, due to insurance reasons, once the weight gets put on, she gets discharged, as insurance covers the only the minimum amount of time possible at…
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The Golden Road to Hell
The days at inpatient were long, regimented, and monitored. You ate three meals a day and two snacks between meals. You would have a therapy session every day, either one-on-one with your shrink, or in your “home” group of 4-6 girls. Free time was spent reading, playing cards, doing art, coloring – yes, adults coloring…