Author: frivvy89
Here are five ways to become a more accepting person.Illustrations by Lydia OrtizAs a psychologist, I often teach clients in my clinical practice the difference between pain and suffering. Pain on its own can be difficult. But it’s only when you don’t accept it that it turns into suffering.Of course, more than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, pain and suffering are understandable experiences. But as a compassionate gesture to yourself, it may be liberating to consider how you approach your own anguish, and if there are ways you can ease it a bit.After validating my clients’ legitimate distress, I…
Binge eating disorder can be a tricky subject, so when a dad reached out to get my opinion on whether his son has binge eating disorder, I dove into several questions. Binge eating is sometimes an adaptive response to not eating enough food. Other times though, it’s a serious eating disorder.So I asked a lot of questions to try and find out more so we can point the dad in the right direction for getting help. The letterDear Ginny, My 16-year-old son has started binge eating. He eats a lot of food. For example, yesterday he made himself an entire package…
My therapy session started off the way all hard sessions do.Me: “I’m doing great.”Therapist: “That is wonderful.”Me: “Yes. I finally feel good physically and we had a great spring break trip with the kids. I haven’t been sleeping well. But other than that little issue things are great.”My therapist began asking those therapist-y questions: Why aren’t you sleeping? What is keeping you up? As she dug deeper, I revealed I lay awake at night replaying the events of the past few months.“McCall, what you went through is traumatic.”DAMN IT. I don’t want another trauma. I don’t want to work through…
Happy Friday, friends! It’s been a while. To be honest, I haven’t given my blog much thought or attention lately, for a couple reasons. The first is that I’ve been busy. Between work, school, and maintaining a social life, it isn’t easy to squeeze blogging into my schedule. I’m hoping that will change soon. But I make no promises. The second reason I’ve been MIA is that I’ve been working on another writing project. And I’m so excited to announce that it’s finished! Last month, I published a book, Taste and See: A Guide to Eating Disorder Recovery! It’s written…
Sometimes people who have recovered from an eating disorder can slip back into restriction with compelling diets like intermittent fasting. These diets have a sneaky way of convincing people that they are healthy and an ideal way to eat. But any form of restriction is dangerous territory during recovery.In this article, I respond to a mom who is worried about her daughter who had anorexia and is now practicing intermittent fasting. The mom is understandably concerned, so I address whether intermittent fasting can be “intuitive” and also whether it can be healthy. The letterDear Ginny, My 18-year-old daughter has been in recovery…
Sample characteristicsThe sample characteristics are presented at Table 1. The sample consisted mainly of females (M = 86%) in the middle ages (M = 39 years) with severe obesity (BMI M = 36.7). There were no group differences at baseline. However, the FCQ-S total score differed nearly significant between groups at T0 (p = 0.08), though it did not differ between groups at T1 (p = 0.56) and T2 (p = 0.90). This has been considered in a sensitivity analysis (see below).Table 1 Sample characteristics of the IMPULS group (IG) and the control group (CG) at baseline (T0).Cued exploration paradigmFigure 3 displays the results from the cued exploration paradigm. Concerning the initial fixation position…
“Relationships and Recovery” (By: Peggy Miller) As I reflect on my own recovery journey, one aspect that stands out the most is how my relationships have healed and grown as a result of my recovery. An eating disorder takes away the physical time and mental capacity that is needed to build strong relationships. An eating disorder convinces a person that they are not worthy of love, time, or space- which are all things that relationships need to grow and thrive. An eating disorder thrives in secrecy; relationships thrive in vulnerability. An eating disorder seeks to steal life; relationships are meant…
A unique residential study has concluded that, contrary to perceived wisdom, people with eating disorders do not lose self-control – leading to binge-eating – in response to stress. The findings of the Cambridge-led research are published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.People who experience bulimia nervosa and a subset of those affected by anorexia nervosa share certain key symptoms, namely recurrent binge-eating and compensatory behaviours, such as vomiting. The two disorders are largely differentiated by body mass index (BMI): adults affected by anorexia nervosa tend to have BMI of less than 18.5 kg/m2. More than 1.6 million people in the…
A unique residential study has concluded that, contrary to perceived wisdom, people with eating disorders do not lose self-control — leading to binge-eating — in response to stress. The findings of the Cambridge-led research are published today in the Journal of Neuroscience. People who experience bulimia nervosa and a subset of those affected by anorexia nervosa share certain key symptoms, namely recurrent binge-eating and compensatory behaviours, such as vomiting. The two disorders are largely differentiated by body mass index (BMI): adults affected by anorexia nervosa tend to have BMI of less than 18.5 kg/m2. More than 1.6 million people in…
A new probe into the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed correlations to six unhealthy eating behaviors, according to a study by the University of Minnesota Medical School and School of Public Health. Researchers say the most concerning finding indicates a slight increase or the re-emergence of eating disorders, which kill roughly 10,200 people every year — about one person every 52 minutes. U of M Medical School’s Melissa Simone, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, collaborated with School of Public Health professor and head of the Division of Epidemiology and Community…