Author: frivvy89
Are you new, or just getting started with eating disorder recovery? Or do you have a treatment team in place, but are looking for some extra support? Maybe someone you care about is dealing with an eating disorder and you’re looking for ways to support them and yourself. There are so many reasons why people need support around eating disorder recovery. No matter where you or your loved one are in their eating disorder recovery, I have a great list of free resources to help. Many of these free eating disorder recovery resources are in the form of support groups…
Traditionally, eating disorder (ED) treatment stipulates that people refrain from exercising based on the assumption that patients will misuse workout practices to compensate for enhanced food intake. Over-exercising and purging through exercise are common features across all EDs, and they’re extremely unhealthy practices that are often some of the last symptoms to subside during recovery1. The degree of over-exercise, as well as body image dissatisfaction, also predicts whether a person will relapse, an occurrence that happens in up to 52% of people who have initially recovered from an ED2,3. From that perspective, it makes sense that ED treatment involves no…
Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photo: Getty “Swellness” is a monthlong series exploring the health and wellness stuff no one talks about. For the three years I worked as a pastry chef, my life revolved around food. I spent my days baking sheets of brownies, hundreds of chocolate-chip cookies, and loaves of banana bread. I was constantly surrounded by food — and I was hardly eating anything at all. While I’d long struggled with body-image issues — I first started counting calories and drinking meal-replacement shakes as a freshman in high school — I started consciously restricting what I ate only when I began working…
Women may be more susceptible to emotional eating than men, a study published in the Brain Communication journal suggests.The study of 183 men and women revealed that there are brain signals associated with obesity that could be gender-specific, and that different factors could be driving weight gain in men and women.The study was led by Arpana Gupta, an assistant professor and director of the Neuroimaging Core at the University of California, Los Angeles who specialises in research into how environmental and biological factors contribute to “stress-based diseases such as obesity”. She was awarded the Rome Foundation Research Award in 2019.For…
Whether you’re afraid of dogs, needles or enclosed spaces, one of the most effective interventions for this type of anxiety disorder is exposure therapy in which you confront your fear in a safe environment. A new study led by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine finds that exposure therapy is also a promising treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. They found that exposure to feared foods — such as candy bars and pizza — helped kids who were in a partial hospitalization program for eating disorders experience decreased anxiety toward food. “As a society that is so heavily influenced…
Descrease article font size Increase article font size A new residential eating disorder treatment program is set to be built in Calgary with the aim of closing a “significant gap” in the continuum of care, according to the province. On Wednesday the government announced $5.3 million over three years to establish a live-in recovery program for Albertans aged 13 to 24. The funding will go to 12 new publicly funded beds that will be run by Edgewood Health Network (EHN). 1:52 Mental health centre for 8,000 children and youth to open in Calgary “The new program will … increase treatment…
When Ed Sheeran recently revealed to Rolling Stone that he has “a real eating problem,” his words were more impactful than he may have realized. For one thing, men have historically been left out of the eating disorder conversation (despite the fact that about 10 million individuals who identify as male in the United States will experience an ED at some point in their life). But Sheeran’s comments also put the spotlight on a specific issue that is often ignored, overlooked, and misunderstood—even though it’s widely considered the most common ED in adults: binge eating disorder (BED).What is binge eating disorder (BED)? While many have…
Living as a nonbinary person is equal parts liberating and confusing. Grappling with my gender identity has caused deep, inherent body image dissatisfaction. Yearning for a masculine, more androgynous appearance increased the severity of my already existing eating disorder. As an assigned female at birth nonbinary person, I will share some information on the relation between gender dysphoria and eating disorders, along with my story regarding these themes. Discussing gender outside the normative binary is still relatively new today. Chances are you’ve heard the terms transgender and nonbinary, but the phrase gender dysphoria may remain unknown to you. For…
The traditional assumption that eating disorders primarily affect affluent white women has led to stigma, stereotyping and misunderstanding. toondelamour/E+ via Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with worsening mental health among teens, including increasing numbers of patients with eating disorders. In fact, research indicates that the number of teens with eating disorders at least doubled during the pandemic. This is particularly concerning given that eating disorders are among the most deadly of all mental health diagnoses, and teens with eating disorders are at higher risk for suicide than the general population. While experts don’t know exactly why eating…
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with worsening mental health among teens, including increasing numbers of patients with eating disorders. In fact, research indicates that the number of teens with eating disorders at least doubled during the pandemic. This is particularly concerning given that eating disorders are among the most deadly of all mental health diagnoses, and teens with eating disorders are at higher risk for suicide than the general population. While experts don’t know exactly why eating disorders develop, studies show that body dissatisfaction and desire for weight loss are key contributors. This can make conversations around weight and…