If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door.
Robert Brault
picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/snugglepup/4544140905/in/photostream/
Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 26, 2012
If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door.
Robert Brault
picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/snugglepup/4544140905/in/photostream/
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commentsRaising Eating Disorders Awareness In Memory of Sarah Fasano
Eve Simonetti is on a mission to raise awareness for eating disorders in memory of her friend, Sarah Fasano.
Eve says, "Over the past 8 years i have been suffering from an eating disorder that has nearly killed me and taken my life. Not many people realize just how powerful this disorder is. I have been to over a dozen treatment facilities and have met hundreds of girls/women who are fighting for their life with this as well but we have very limited resources. Recently i have lost a friend from my most recent treatment center, The Renfrew Center. My roommate Sarah Fasano. Not just for her but for all of my friends silently suffering, i would like to raise awareness of this vicious disease and just how many women it affects. Sarah was very passionate about NEDA and recovery, so i would like to pay a tribute to her and the other soldiers we have lost along the way in the battle against the body."
Statistics show:
- 70 million individuals are affected by eating disorders worldwide, with 24 million being American.
- 10 to 15 percent are male.
- 90 percent of women with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
- Currently approximately 11 percent of high school students have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
- 15 percent of young women in the US who are not diagnosed with an eating disorder exhibit substantially disordered eating behavior and attitude.
Eve added, "Sarah was active and passionate about NEDA and I really cant think of anything else that would serve as more of a testimony than this."
All donations raised in honor of Sarah Fasano will go to NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association). Please consider making a donation and help Eve raise awareness about eating disorders.
Donations can be made here.
Sarah Fasano Music on YouTube
See more Eating Disorders Statistics
picsource:http://www.myspace.com/sarahfasano/photos/52849510
This Week's R.I.S.E. :What Would You Say To A Friend?
This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is What would you say to a friend?
Have you ever noticed that when someone you care about is hurting that you're able to give support, comfort, and advice from a place of love that seems reserved just for them? Do you ever hear what you're saying and think, "why can I say this to someone else and not to myself?"
For many of us, we see other people's problems and solutions much clearer than we see our own. Sometimes the solution seems so obvious and uncomplicated. Even complicated solutions still seem doable. Why is that? The reasons range from complicated to down right simple.
We're just too close to the problem.
Everything seems harder to accomplish when it's personal. It gets bogged down in the muck of our personal "stuff."
We're dealing with things like:
- Our past experiences/history
- How we feel about ourselves
- Fear of change
- Fear of failure
- Feeling undeserving
So this week take a problem you're dealing with and pretend you're advising, comforting, and supporting a friend. Writing it down in letter form will help you reach your true "friend" voice (Dear insert your name here ). Don't read it when you're done writing it. Put it away for a day... or three. When you have a few moments to be all alone, grab yourself a cup of warm tea, settle into a comfy spot, and read it, slowly. Then read it again, out loud.
Now, follow your own advice.
You are deserving, and worthy of it.
©Weighing The Facts
picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mel_rowling/6122321048/in/photostream/
Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 14, 2011
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Helen Keller
See sidebar menu for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes
Eating Disorders News and Views: January 10, 2012
Binge Eating Disorder May Be Added to DSM-5
The DSM-5 Feeding and Eating Disorders Work Group is proposing a number of diagnostic changes. Here’s an overview.
Criteria for “binge eating disorder,” the fruit of an explosion of research on the subject since publication of DSM-IV, are being proposed for inclusion in DSM-5. The addition of the disorder, defined as recurrent eating of “an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances,” is among the major changes proposed for the chapter on feeding and eating disorders. Virtually identical criteria for binge eating disorder were listed in the appendix to the chapter in DSM-IV but it was not included as an official diagnosis.
Read Binge Eating Disorder DSM-5 in full.
Women with Anorexia May Have Categorical Learning Deficiencies
Recent research has focused on examining the cognitive abilities of people with eating issues and in particular, of women with anorexia nervosa (AN). “These studies are important for a better understanding of AN given the possibility that cognitive deficits may (a) contribute to the development and persistence of AN, (b) result from neurological changes associated with the disease, or (c) influence the choice of treatment approaches,” said Megan E. Shott of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado. More recent studies have discovered that although individuals with AN may have deficits in cognitive functioning, many of them also have very high IQs.
Read Categorical Learning Disabilities in full.
When Eating Healthy Turns Obsessive
In a vegan café in New York City, Nisha Moodley pushes a glass crusted with the remnants of a berry-açai-almond milk smoothie across the table and begins listing the foods she excised from her diet six years ago.
"Factory-farmed meats; hormone-laden dairy; conventional non-organic fruits and vegetables; anything hydrogenated; anything microwaved," the slender 32-year-old health coach says. "I would not eat irradiated food; charred or blackened foods; artificial coloring, flavoring, or sweetener; MSG; white rice; sugar; table salt; or anything canned.
Back then, a typical breakfast for Moodley consisted of buckwheat mixed with seaweed, raw cacao powder, flax oil, and flax seeds. Lunch was usually homemade brown rice with lentils, fresh vegetables, and kale, followed by a mid-afternoon snack of homemade flax-seed-and-buckwheat crackers. And for dinner, a salad with garbanzo beans, avocado, carrots, beets, and mushrooms.
Moodley initially adopted this diet to address recurring bad digestion. But her commitment to healthy eating -- something to be commended, ordinarily -- turned into an obsession that took over her life. "I was terrified of food that didn't fit within my idea of what was healthy," Moodley says. "I was terrified of cancer, of dying."
Read Healthy Turns Obsessive in full
Is Binge Eating a Mental Disorder?
According to the latest draft of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM) in the American Psychiatric Association (APA), binge eating is a mental disorder.
Health professionals refer to this document to conclude whether an individual is suffering from a mental disorder or not. In the manual, binge eating shares place with grave medical conditions such as substance-related disorders, sleep disorders and anxiety disorders. But does this mean that if you chug cheese burgers, you are suffering from a clinical eating disorder? Let's find out...
Binge eating depicts a lack of control over one's eating habits, a feeling where one has no control over how much or how many times one is eating.
The top characteristics which distinguish binge eating from normal eating are:
- Eating food much more quickly than normal.
- Eating food until feeling awkwardly full.
- Consuming large amounts of food when not feeling hungry.
- Consuming food in a separate room, or in isolation so as not to feel embarrassed by the quantity or style of eating.
- A binge eater tends to feel very appalled with oneself. A deep feeling of depression or guilt lingers on after the completion of an eating spree.
Here are a few tried and tested ways to avoid binge eating:
- Distract yourself from the food and indulge in an activity you love. Rush for a warm water bath when you think food is overpowering you. Go for a nice chocolate pedicure session or may be light some nice scented candles in your room and play some light music rather than eating.
- In other times, you might find this a tad bit boring, but sip small amounts of water whenever you feel you are in the mood to indulge.
Read Binge Eating/Mental Disorder in full
Emirati Woman Recounts How She Chose Life Over Anorexia
Sitting in the lounge of a Dubai hotel, Samira Murshid Al Romaithi could be any other 28-year-old woman. Clear-skinned and bright-eyed, she smiles as she greets me, exposing a set of pearly white teeth and a long mane of dark hair that falls over a pretty, sensitive face.
Confident without being overbearing, articulate and charming, this is a woman who holds a senior position with the Government in Abu Dhabi; who is the vice president of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu committee and a blue-belt competitor; who is about to launch her own business selling health food snacks; and who not only has a BA and a master's but also is halfway through another master's, in diplomacy and international relations. Her zest for life is obvious.
It's almost impossible to imagine she once suffered from anorexia.
Anorexia - a word that conjures up images of skeletal-like young women and that many presume is vanity in the extreme, an attempt to achieve the perfect body gone terribly wrong and an example of just how askew our priorities have become in the complicated modern world.
But there is, of course, more to this insidious disease that (along with other eating disorders such as bulimia) is still a taboo subject in many parts of the world and especially so in the UAE.
Read Emirati Woman in full
People With Eating Disorders Still suffering on Sidelines
BY THE time she was finally admitted to hospital, Noelle Graham's heart was on the point of giving out. Years of extreme dieting, purging and vomiting had ravaged the very substance of her body, leaving her blood so low in potassium it could no longer sustain a regular pulse.
That four-month admission, in 2009, was the culmination of nearly a decade of disordered eating that began when Ms Graham was only 12 - starting benignly enough as a decision to become a vegan and escalating through compulsive exercise, deliberate vomiting and long periods of starvation.
Still battling not to relapse, Ms Graham sees a psychiatrist and has had to return many times to hospital, where she said doctors typically, ''stick me on a drip and rehydrate me, then send me home''.
Read People With Eating Disorders in full
New Approach to Diagnosing Anorexia Nervosa
January 9, 2012
A new approach for diagnosing patients with anorexia nervosa has been developed at the University of Sydney. The approach could have a significant impact on the treatment and recovery of sufferers, as well as reducing the strain on public health.
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, Professor Stephen Touyz, of the University of Sydney's Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders, advocates a move to diagnosing anorexia nervosa in stages of severity, similar to the method used for diagnosing cancer.
"At the moment, you can only diagnose anorexia nervosa if you have the illness quite severely already," says Professor Touyz.
"By the time you have anorexia nervosa, and people can see that you've got it, you're an extremely ill person. This is an illness where 20 percent of people who are diagnosed could potentially die."
Professor Touyz's proposed system of stages would introduce the diagnosis of stage one anorexia nervosa for patients who clearly already suffer from the illness but do not yet meet its official diagnostic criteria.
Read New Approach in full
15 Quotes For Recovery In This Brand New Year
Celebrate what you want to see more of.
Tom Peters
A new year is unfolding ... like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within.
Anonymous
For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.
T.S. Eliot
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce
We spend January (1) walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws but for potential.""
Ellen Goodman
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
Einstein
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
Hal Borland
Why shed tears on failures long forgotten when hope looms on the horizon?
Charles Casha
In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.
Irish saying
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
Oprah Winfrey
The old year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!
Edward Payson Powell
I don’t really have a New Year’s resolution to go on a diet or anything like that. I am who I am, and I don’t want to be somebody else.
Karolina Kurkova
One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
John Burroughs
If it didn’t Bring you Joy,
Just Leave it Behind.
Let’s Ring in the New Year
With Good Things in Mind.
Let Every Bad Memory Go
That Brought Heartache and Pain.
And let’s Turn a New Leaf
With the Smell of New Rain.
Let’s Forget Past Mistakes
Making Amends for This Year.
Sending You These Greetings
To Bring you Hope and Cheer
Happy New Year!
Unknown
See also 10 Self-Nurturing New Year's Resolutions
See sidebar for more Recovery Quotes
Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 6, 2011
Sharon Salzberg
See sidebar menu for more Recovery Quotes Of The Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes
picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/emry/3022879417/in/photostream/
This Week's R.I.S.E. : Kisses In Your Pocket
This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is Kisses In Your Pocket.
Years ago, when my now grown son was little, I gave him something to help buffer the insecurity he was feeling at the thought of the unknown ... being away from me for part of the day while he attended preschool. Each day I put on some lipstick and covered a piece of paper with kisses for him to keep in his pocket. Each time he felt he needed it, he could pull out that little slip of paper and take a kiss of encouragement. It was enough to see him through those days he felt unsure or anxious.
Years earlier my husband was in a horrible accident. Surviving it was a miracle. The road ahead was uncertain. One night, while I was spending the night in the hospital solarium, I met a patient who couldn't sleep. We got to talking. He told me his story, and I told him my husband's. He took a necklace from around his neck, removed the old, worn medal of St. Michael and asked me to give it to my husband. He told me how it had seen him through so much and he wanted him to have it. My husband kept that medal with him at all times, switching it his wallet when he was released. It reminded him to stay strong, to hang in there, he could do this.
Sometimes, all we need is a little something that says to us "you can do this, you're going to be okay, this moment of struggle is going to pass."
So this week put some kisses in your pocket. Choose something easily carried with you. Break it out whenever it's needed and draw strength from what it symbolizes. You CAN do this!
See sidebar menu for more Weekly R.I.S.E.
©Weighing The Facts
Eating Disorders Recovery: In Recovery ...
click image to enlarge
In recovery I'm learning to love myself again. I'm discovering that I can trust myself and take care of myself. I'm finding out that what I really need is to nurture my body and my spirit. Believing in myself and working my recovery is the most important step in achieving the life I desire for myself, the life that I am worthy of... the life I deserve.
Recovery!
The New Year: Eating Disorders Poll
What emotions are you feeling with the arrival of the New Year?
Please take a moment to participate in the poll in the sidebar.
Thank you.
MrsM
This poll is now closed.
You can find the results here: Previous Poll Results
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