I have had a few experiences of inpatient treatment for my eating disorder from ages 13 – 18 years. One of these was a mixed adolescent ward with different young people with a wide range of mental health issues and the others were specialist units for eating disorders. I found all of the places I […]
Category: Eating Disorder Treatment
*Please be aware this account does contain reference to self harm* I hope this won’t trigger anybody but I am happy to share my experiences of my Australian treatment in 2013 – 2015 and also my treatment in adolescent eating disorder units in the UK, which were back in 2016 when I was only sixteen […]
I live in France and have been inpatient six times for periods ranging from two weeks (I left here as I wasn’t ready) to three months (when I did really try). There are few positives in my story. I only stuck with the eating disorder treatment as I was also needing treatment for my mood […]
It is official. I am finally so sick of hearing stories from incredible people around the world, bravely doing battle with powerful eating disorders but receiving terrible treatment that I felt it was time to take more action. Adult eating disorder treatment worldwide is largely inadequate and things are changing too slowly. I am aware […]
Nearly all illnesses that I can think of are categorised into whether they are mental or physical in nature. However, I am not sure I can think of one illness, large or small that does not have mental and physical consequences on the person. So why, I frequently ask myself, are we so keen to […]
To those of us with eating disorder genetics, negative energy is like a drug to an addict. I have just read a great article written by Dr. Cynthia Bulik abut how negative energy balance in people prone to anorexia nervosa is a, ‘dangerous biological trap’. As she says, in most of the population, getting into […]
Eating disorder treatment needs to evolve and listen to the patients! Too many people, like myself, are leaving traditional treatment in order to recover because treatment is not providing the treatment approach that is so necessary. Others are taking the eating disorder services offered but having to find the courage to go beyond the teachings […]
You have committed to recovering, decided you are going to eat and rest more, ‘try’ to accept weight gain (sigh!) and you have set out on making brave changes. You are muddling through how to make yourself eat not just more but ‘enough’…. yet there is also still an intense fear of eating ‘too much’. […]
For many people a picture like this of delicious food depicts a happy occasion and a relaxing time… To me, a picture like this depicts hard work, pain and my version of exposure therapy! Most people who first learn that restrictive eating disorder treatment entails having to rest a lot and eat a lot of […]
Over the years I had treatment attempts for my eating disorder using the traditional low and slow approach – always leaving me at partial weight restoration and in a quasi recovery but never getting me recoverED! In treatment it was ingrained that we gain 0.5-1kg a week on meal plans that were restrictive and the […]
Weight gain in recovery is essential but not easy.. I have been gaining weight lately as part of my eating disorder recovery and so I thought I’d write a bit more about my experiences with and thoughts about weight gain. Weight gain is something we don’t talk about a lot, unless in a negative way and […]
I’ve written in previous posts about lower level movement compulsions in eating disorders & the importance of addressing them in recovery. Facing up to eating more food and weight restoration alone does not a full recovery make! Recovery entails overcoming all the little behaviours and compulsions that have wormed in over the years – some […]
After two months of starting this recovery, I wrote about what I’d learnt at that point. This is an extension, with the further learnings from month three. At the start of month three I adopted a faster approach & revised plan, which has had its ups & downs but generally proven beneficial! I plan to […]
Being diagnosed with an eating disorder is not a joyous occasion but it provides a medical reasoning for the food rules, anxieties, behaviours, weight manipulation & feeling of craziness that an eating disorder brings to our lives. Once diagnosed we can feel relief & hope – now diagnosed, surely treatment can help us get better? […]
When accepting help creates terror but it’s not why you think. I have just had one of those dawning moments that make some of the recovery fears a little clearer. I consider myself an inadvertent victim of the traditional treatment I’ve received ‘help’ from in the past. Models where meal plans were barely adequate to […]
RECOVERING NOMAD 