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Supportive Websites For Help With Eating Disorders

FitSugar — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:00:16 PST

The last week of February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and this year's motto is, "It's Time to Talk About It." If you or someone you know is suffering from an ED, here's a list of online resources that can offer information, support, and help. Hopefully, this will help in bringing them one step closer to talking about it.

SomethingFishy: This is an active website with lots of forums, which makes it a great way to get info while also being part of a supportive community. If someone you know has an ED, it recommends ways that you can help, which include a comprehensive list of treatment centers so you can find one near you.
National Eating Disorders Association: If you're looking for someone to talk to, you can call its toll free helpline at 800-931-2237, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PST.
EatingDisordersOnline.com: This website is full of recent articles on eating disorders and gives a lot of valuable information on the different types of eating disorders and recovery. It also describes many different treatment options to help you decide which one will work best for you.

See more resources when you

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Better Body Image

TresSugar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:00:25 PST

Since it's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, NEDA ambassador and best-selling author Jenni Schaefer is sharing her insights with us. Yesterday Jenni told us that although she struggled with serious eating disorders for years, she thinks recovery gave her a better body image than she could have ever hoped for. She said: "I spent years talking to a therapist about the size of my thighs. Normal women out there they don't have that luxury, they don't get those tools." So I asked her to share ways we can all improve our body image.

Focus on what your body does, not what it looks like. Jenni says: "Rather than always concentrating on what my body looks like, I shifted my focus to what my body does. I started focusing on how lucky I am to have legs that can hike up a mountain, rather than thinking 'wow my legs are so big.' Instead, we should appreciate what our bodies do. Especially with women, our bodies are so amazing. We can bear children. If we started shifting our focus on what our body does and not what it looks like - that was big for me."
Replace negative body image with life experiences. Jenni explains: "Realize that your body is just a vehicle for life. I've heard people say it's like an earth suit. It's what you get to wear to walk around and experience the world. Instead of staying in my apartment and hating my body and wrapping myself up in sweats and big blankets and hiding from the world, I started taking off those things, putting on a swimsuit, and going swimming with my friends.
"I was replacing the negative shame I had for wearing a swimsuit, with the life experience of getting a swimsuit, putting it on, and jumping in the pool. At first, women, and men, need to know, they're going to feel uncomfortable. If they hate their body and they put on a swim suit and go in the water, they'll probably still hate their body. But if you do it slowly over time that experience will become fun and joyful that you'll stop hating your body so much. Bad body image is like a prison, it keeps people trapped in their minds and in their houses, literally."

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: The Thin Ideal

TresSugar — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:00:55 PST

Since it's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, NEDA ambassador and best-selling author Jenni Schaefer is sharing her insights with us. After struggling with anorexia and bulimia, Jenni finally divorced her eating disorder. Here are Jenni's thoughts on how society plays a role in eating disorders.

How much does society contribute to an eating disorder and how much is it an individual's issue? Leading researchers on eating disorders often say: genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger. Certain people are born with certain personality traits that can lead to an eating disorder. Some of those traits are compulsivity, high anxiety, perfectionism.

I was born with all of those traits. And then environment pulling the trigger, for me that was mostly being in our society with the media and with the focus on the thin ideal and the message that if you're thin you'll be happy and you'll be smart and successful. So when I applied all those traits - compulsivity, high anxiety, perfectionism - to trying to meet the thin ideal, for me it was the perfect storm for an eating disorder.

Still, Jenni says society's thinness obsession can have a negative impact on anyone: But what I see now is that regardless of whether someone has a clinical eating disorder, so many people in this world live in this disordered-eating zone. They're worried about food all the time, they still eat but it's a constant worry, a constant weight. They're a healthy weight, but they still worry. And I think it's really sad that the norm is to not like your body. I think society really has an eating disorder - I call it "societal Ed."

How did you get past the thin ideal? The keys for me with body image was giving myself time and patience to accept and then love my body. Also it's a continuum as well - I started off hating my body, moved to not liking it, then I moved to accepting it, then I moved to liking it, then I moved to loving it. That continuum of my body image improving took years and years. What I've learned, it's really wild, people I know who have recovered from eating disorders have so many more tools to deal with "societal Ed," aka the thin ideal. I spent years talking to a therapist about the size of my thighs. Normal women out there - they don't have that luxury, they don't get those tools. I feel that my eating disorder forced me to be healthier than I ever would have been.

Come back tomorrow to learn more about the tools anyone can use to improve body image.

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Divorcing Ed

TresSugar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:00:37 PST

At age four, author Jenni Schaefer felt fat in dance class. At the age of 22, when her life had become unmanageable thanks to anorexia and bulimia, Jenni committed to getting help and began the long path toward successfully "divorcing" her eating disorder. Jenni has written two books - Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me - and now serves as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). This is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, so I talked to Jenni about her journey toward life without an eating disorder and will share her insight with you this week.

How did you become a NEDA ambassador? I got help at 22. I was struggling with anorexia and bulimia and it took many years to get better, but once I finally did I wanted to help get the word out. I recovered using a unique technique - my first book is called Life Without Ed, and "Ed" is an acronym for eating disorder. I was taught to treat my eating disorder like a relationship, rather than an illness. So in therapy I actually talked to Ed, and I learned to find my own voice and eventually divorce Ed, which is a metaphor I used a lot in recovery. . . It's a little confusing now, that "ED" actually stands for something else!

How did you know you needed help? I actually thought for so long that I was really healthy, and I think that's what most women and men that first get into eating disorders initially think - and maybe they are initially healthy, but so many times dieting can spiral fast into a clinical eating disorder. I think I finally realized I had a problem in college when my life was spinning out of control. I felt hopeless; when I graduated I couldn't even hold a job waiting tables. Here I was, I was supposed to go to medical school, I had straight As in college and I couldn't hold a job waiting tables because my eating disorder was so bad. And that's when I finally decided to get help, when I was at rock bottom. I didn't want to live another day if I had to live with my eating disorder, but I actually wanted to live.

Jenni acknowledges that the line between an eating disorder and dieting isn't always so clear: It'd be safe to say for someone struggling with an eating disorder that in the beginning, they're not going to know. They're going to think they're being healthy. They're going to be receiving compliments for their eating behaviors. A key question to ask yourself: is my life unmanageable because of food and weight? Is my life miserable because of food and weight? And if your life is unmanageable and you're unhappy because of food and weight then you need to get help regardless of what you're doing with food, regardless of what you weigh.

Jenni, who lost a friend to anorexia last year, says that if you suspect a friend is struggling you have to do something: So many people are afraid to approach someone about a mental illness regardless of what it might be, but this is an illness that kills.

So what should an outsider do? To find out,

read more. It's different for different people, but one of the worse things you can say is, "You're so thin," or "I've noticed you've lost a lot of weight," because they'll take that as a compliment. So it's best to be very specific and point out behaviors that you've seen, but don't gear them toward weight. You might say: "I've noticed in the past few weeks you seem to be isolating more, you seem to be moody." Because a sign of an eating disorder is isolation and moodiness, depression. Another thing people might point out is, "I notice that when we go out to eat you always get up and go to the bathroom immediately after eating and I'm concerned about that" or "Lately you've been skipping lunch, and I'm concerned about that." It's OK to mention specific behaviors but steer away from weight. And also use "I" statements rather than "you." "I'm concerned," "I'm here for you." "I want to help you." Instead of focusing on "You've lost weight," or "You're killing yourself" that just makes people feel ashamed and with eating disorders they already feel ashamed. And they don't need to feel any more guilt because this is an illness, not a choice. They don't choose to have it, but they do choose to get better, and a friend can be a key in making that choice. Jenni says one of the best things about NEDA is the anonymous helpline: People can call, and no one will ask their name and they can actually get resources and ask questions, and it's a free anonymous helpline. You can call the hotline at: 1-800-931-2237.

Alanis Morissette on Defeating Her Eating Disorder

FitSugar — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:07:10 PST

Grammy-winner Alanis Morissette has traveled a long road struggling with depression, self-image, and food. In a recent interview with Health magazine, the singer shares that as a teenager, she was both anorexic and bulimic. Although her recovery began at age 18, Alanis says, "eating issues dogged me through my 20s." During that time, she wasn't worried about her weight, but was working long hours and eating salty and processed foods. Admittedly, she wasn't taking care of herself.

Life changed completely when she discovered Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live. "It’s become my bible, pushing me to completely reorient my thinking about what to put into my body," the singer says. Check out her current diet:

"Now I concentrate on eating high-nutrient foods like fruit, nuts, collards, kale, and spinach. I’m obsessed with them. I even put spinach in my smoothies! - and arugula, too. For lunch, say, I’ll put it in a whole grain wrap with cucumbers, green peppers, hummus, tomatoes, and some lemon juice, cayenne, and hot sauce. I eat a lot of flaxseed oil to keep my omega-3s up, and I put cruciferous veggies like broccoli in soups - they’re so good for you."

Learn Alanis's philosophy on alcohol when you

read more. Alanis isn't all healthy foods all the time. She definitely indulges in the occasional glass of wine or piece of chocolate, believing that "treats are mandatory." Making healthy food swaps is another way the singer enjoys her favorite foods without feeling bad. Instead of regular mozzarella on her pizza, she tops it with soy cheese and organic tomatoes. In place of buttery popcorn, she loves snacking on "popcorn with balsamic vinegar, vegan butter, and all kinds of spices" - sounds tasty and I think I will try it. As for dairy products, Alanis rarely eats them. She says, "I’ll never forget my friend Woody Harrelson telling me I needed to get rid of the dairy in my fridge to clear up my skin. He was right. My skin looks great now." This nutrient-rich diet also gave Morissette the fuel to train for and complete a marathon this year, to raise awareness about eating disorders. Now that she's discovered how good it feels to treat her body right, starving herself just isn't an option. She adds that, "Eating the right way has become a sort of spiritual practice for me." To that I say rock on Alanis!

Do Tell: What Was Your Mother's Relationship to Food?

TresSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 PDT

Did you "thin-herit" food issues from your mother?

According to a poll conducted by teen magazine Sugar, girls ages 12 - 18 said that their mother's eating and/or dieting habits and views on food were the biggest influence on their own relationship to food. It was found that if a mom diets, she's twice as likely to have a daughter with an eating disorder.

What was your mother's relationship to food? Do you think it has affected you positively or negatively?

Stephanie Pratt Says The Hills Made Her Bulimic

FitSugar — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:10:25 PDT

In a recent issue of Us Weekly, Stephanie Pratt opened up for the first time about her struggle with bulimia. Stephanie cites working alongside her super-skinny costars on The Hills as the cause of her eating disorder, which began after joining the cast in 2007. After watching a scene she shot with Lauren Conrad, the 5'7" star said, "I was horrified. I remember saying, 'I can't believe how huge I look walking over to Lauren.'" Then the awful cycle of binging and purging began. When filming in Hawaii with female cast members clad in only bikinis, Stephanie wore a bathing suit and a cover-up. When she asked costar Audrina Patridge what looked better, "shirt on or off," and Audrina responded "On," Pratt really felt the pressures to be thin. Stephanie said she never felt pressure directly from the producers, but she said, "It's embarrassing working with skinny girls."

Do you empathize with Stephanie? Have you ever felt pressure from your peers or co-workers to be "skinny"?

Source

Ana and Mia: My Eating Disorder "Friends"

FitSugar — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:15:00 PST

If you're searching for information on the internet about eating disorders, you're bound to come across 2 girls' names, Ana and Mia.

I've seen it phrased, "My Life With Ana," "Me and Mia," "PRO-Ana," and sadly, "Mia hates You." No, these aren't real girls' names. Ana is short for Anorexia and Mia is short for Bulimia. These nicknames are a way to personify eating disorders, and to make it easier for people to talk openly about them.

Since it is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I thought you should know that there are so many "PRO-Ana" videos out there that sadly promote eating disorders. I found one video of a girl who was sick of it. She recovered from eating disorders herself, and made this video to reveal the true picture of what it means to go through it.

I have a few more things to say on this subject, so

read more Anorexia and Bulimia are not only about food. Eating disorders become a mechanism to cope with serious emotional problems. They are a way to gain control over your life. People with eating disorders suffer through a constant battle with self-hatred and obsess about food, calories, grams of fat, and their weight. Their lives become about dieting, binging, purging, and refraining from food all together. It's kind of like a self-punishment for not being perfect. Fit's Tips: If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, there are many people and treatment centers available who want to help. Avalon Hills is located in Utah, Fairwinds in Florida, Monte Nido in California, and Renfrew in Pennsylvania. They all offer counseling programs to help people heal their hearts and change their lives. There are also some great PR0-RECOVERY sites out there. Check out Something Fishy, and the National Eating Disorder Association, they are both excellent resources.

Katharine McPhee: On Bulimia and Recovery

FitSugar — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:41:26 PST

Last year, after barely losing out to Taylor Hicks for the title of American Idol, Katharine McPhee stated that the reality show saved her life and not for the reasons you might think.

When Katharine received the news she made it to the final twelve girls of the competition, she decided it was time to face the eating disorder of bulimia that was ruining her most valuable attribute - her vocal cords. Bulimics eat excessive amounts of food, often feeling out of control, then, out of disgust and a fear of gaining weight, resort to vomiting or laxatives or other extremes.

After discussing her 5-year bout with bulimia with her parents, Katherine enrolled in an intensive recovery program at Los Angeles's Eating Disorder Center Of California. And intensive it was. The three month long program met 6 days a week for 10-hour days with group and individual therapy. It completely changed her relationship to food, saying:

"I learned that there's no such thing as a bad food. If you look at a doughnut, people think it's a fattening food--why? Because if you eat it you'll get fat? No, you'll get fat if you eat 10 doughnuts."

Her problems began when she was 17 and she attributes her eating disorder to geography - growing up in slender body conscious L.A. had an affect on her.

"Growing up in Los Angeles and spending all those years in dance class, I'd been conscious of body image at a young age, and I went through phases of exercising compulsively and starving myself."

Katharine has a great voice and she faced her bulimia to protect it, as well as her physical and mental health. I have so much respect for her for publicly discussing her eating disorder and recovery process. She knows she is a role model for young girls and she takes it seriously. One ironic fact about her recovery process is that she lost 30 pounds while redefining her relationship to eating. Katharine's story proves you can make it to the other side of an eating disorder and thrive.

Source

Thin the Movie: The Reality of Eating Disorders

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:45:00 PST

Eating disorders affect 5 million people in the U.S. More than 10% of those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa will die from the disease. Seeking to put a human face on these sobering statistics, acclaimed photographer Lauren Greenfield went inside a Florida treatment center to tell the stories of four women who are literally dying to be thin.

The devastating documentary film titled Thin, reveals her findings. It is captivating and you are drawn in by the heart-wrenching stories of these girls and their painful struggles as they each try to recover.

You can purchase Thin, a groundbreaking book about eating disorders. Greenfield's photographs are paired with extensive interviews and journal entries from twenty girls and women suffering not only from their eating disorders, but from the personal struggles that lead to the disorders in the first place.