Recovery Inspiration: Limitless

The ability to accept, forgive, and let-go allows us to move forwards, beyond the pain. Unburdened, we become limitless.
MrsM. 


picsourcehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/3903384725/

Recovery Inspiration: The Choice Is Ours!

  Life challenges our ability to accept, to forgive, to love, and to overcome. We can either face these challenges with grace and positivity, or relinquish our power and welcome defeat. The choice is ours!

*See sidebar menu for more recovery quotes and images. 

Inspirational Recovery: I'll Rise

Now you may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
and I'll rise
I'll rise...
Out of the shacks of 
history's shame
Up from a past rooted 
in pain
I'll rise...
Ben Harper


picsourcehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/2281198348/

Inspirational Recovery Quotes: Joy

Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.  
Mother Teresa 

Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
Henri Nouwen

Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

 The certain pathway to all things that you want is through the corridor of joy.
Abraham-Hicks

May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility.

Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey

 

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy.
Richard Halloway

 

Joy is a return to the deep harmony of body, mind, and spirit that was yours at birth and that can be yours again. That openness to love, that capacity for wholeness with the world around you, is still within you.
Deepak Chopra 

 

Joy is not in things; it is in us.

Richard Wagner

 

A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

 

Don't postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.

Alan Cohen

 

Begin today. Declare out-loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. 

Buddha

  

Listen to the clues. The next time you feel real joy, stop and think. Pay attention. Because joy is the universe’s way of knocking on your mind’s door. Hello in there. Is anyone home? Can I leave a message? Yes? Good! The message is that you are happy, and that means that you are in touch with your purpose.  

Steve Chandler

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.
Henry Ward Beecher

 

My mind to me a kingdom is, such present joys I therein find, that it excels all other bliss.

Sir Edward Dyer

I am wealth. I am abundance. I am joy.
David Cameron Gikandi 

 

The closer you come to your core, the greater is your joy.
Torkom Saraydarin

 

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.

Jim Rohn

 

Increase your joy by doing the good you wish to have done to you.
Daisaku Ikeda

 

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life…
Charlotte Jojo Beck 

 

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. 

Greg Anderson

 

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.
Madeleine L'Engle 

 

Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of them is not my concern.
Henry Miller 

Joy, has no cost.
Marianne Williamson

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. 
Helen Keller

 The joy of a spirit is the measure of its power.
Ninon de Lenclos

 

To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you.
Martha Beck

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. 
Helen Keller 

 

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.
Jean Shinoda Bolen

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.
William Blake 

 

Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Epicurus 

 

One joy shatters a hundred griefs.

Chinese Proverb

 

You will find joy in overcoming obstacles.
Helen Keller

 

The greatest gift you can give yourself is joy, not only because of the feeling that goes with it at the moment, but because of the magnificent experience it will draw to you. It will produce wonders in your life.
Jack Boland 

I feel like a tiny bird with a big song!
J.Van Amerongen 

Instead of asking 'How much damage will the work in question bring about?' why not ask 'How much good? How much joy?

Henry Miller

 

Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want.
Alan Cohen

The only joy in the world is to begin.
Cesare Pavese

 

Love, joy and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.
Eckhart Tolle

Do not judge men by mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over the depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy.
Edward Chapin

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.
Leo Buscaglia 

 

Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.

Marianne Williamson 

 

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
Joseph Campbell 

 

The only true measure of success is the amount of joy we are feeling.
Abraham-Hicks

 

All animals except man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler

 

Sprinkle joy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Be a dynamo of irrepressible joy!
Babaji

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
Leonardo da Vinci 

Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path to joy.

Sarah Ban Breathnach 

 

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.
William Wordsworth 

 

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.
Lao Tzu

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
Emily Dickinson 

He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sun rise.
William Blake 

 

He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower, alike they’re needed to the flower; and joys and tears alike are sent to give the soul its nourishment.

Sarah Flower Adams

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Richard Bach 

 

From joy springs all creation, by joy it is sustained, towards joy it proceeds, and unto joy it returns.
Upanishads

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
Erich Fromm 

 

When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness…all the good things.
Maya Angelou

 The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.
Pema Chodron 

 

When we are centered in joy, we attain our wisdom.
Marianne Williamson

 

To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done - this is how I desire to waste wisely my days.
Thomas Dekker  

 

We laugh to survive. Then, with joy we thrive.
Mary Anne Radmacher  

  *See Sidebar Menu for more Recovery Quotes and Quotes of the Week.

pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersonicphotos/4444746911/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Poll: Should The Door Be Closed To Pro-Ana Sites?

There are arguments for both sides when it comes pro-ana websites and the role they play in eating disorders. Are they dangerous for the health and well-being of those with an eating disorder, those teetering on the border, and those struggling with recovery? Or, do they play an important role, offering positive support for some? Should the door be closed on sites that promote anorexia? What is your opinion? What is your experience?

Please participate in the poll located in the sidebar and share your opinion/experience. If you'd like to elaborate on your choices with an explanation or discussion, please feel free to do so in the comments of this post.
Thank you.
MrsM


Looking for an alternative to pro-ana sites? Check out We Bite Back: Post Pro-Ana Has Finally Arrived

Click here for Previous Polls and Results.


*This poll has ended. Click here to see Completed Poll Results


picture source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/innoxiuss/2824204305/

Eating Disorder Recovery Quotes: The Hope And The Fight

In order to get from what was to what will be, you must go through what is.

~Anonymous

Why shed tears on failures long forgotten when hope looms on the horizon?
~Charles Casha

When the heart is enlivened again, it feels like the sun coming out after a week of rainy days. There is hope in the heart that chases the clouds away. Hope is a higher heart frequency and as you begin to reconnect with your heart, hope is waiting to show you new possibilities and arrest the downward spiral of grief and loneliness. It becomes a matter of how soon you want the sun to shine. Listening to the still, small voice in your heart will make hope into a reality.
~Sara Paddison

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.
~George Allen

Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.
~Clarence Darrow

 But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.
~ Paulo Coelho

When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
~Pauline R. Kezer

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
~Oscar Wilde

You've gotta have hope. Without hope life is meaningless. Without hope life is meaning less and less.
~ Unknown

To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.
~ E. E. Cummings

Patience and perseverance surmount every difficulty.
~Unknown

What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.
~Emil Brunne

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. ~ Plato

 Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.
~William James

When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Unknown

Kind words, kind looks, kind acts and warm handshakes, these are means of grace when men in trouble are fighting their unseen battles.
~ John Hall

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. ~Martin Luther King, Jr

 Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.
~ Eliza Tabor

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
~Napoleon Hill

Nothing worth having in life was ever gained easily.
~Unknown

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.
~George S. Patton Jr.

That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
~George Bernard Shaw

You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it.
~Gilbert Keith Chesterton

When you're in the battlefield, survival is all there is.
~Sam Fuller

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
~ Thornton Wilder

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
~Richard L. Evans

Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.
~Unknown

Once you choose hope, anything's possible.
~Christopher Reeve

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.
~Jean-Paul Sartre

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
~Allan K. Chalmers

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. ~ David Lloyd George

What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.
~Napoleon Hill

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope.
~Samuel Johnson

When you are down on your back, if you can look up, you can get up.
~Les Brown

You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one and accept responsibility for solving it.
~Zig Ziglar

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.
~Barbara Kingsolve

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance.
~H. Jackson Brown

The only real failure in life is the failure to try.
~Unknown

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.
~Orison Swett Marden

The only real failure in life is one not learned from.
~Anthony J. D'Angelo

Those who wish to sing always find a song.
~Proverb

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
~Elbert Hubbard

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.
~Dale Carnegie


I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
~Aristotle

Try.
Fail.
Try Again.
Fail Better.
~Samuel Beckett

We acquire the strength we have overcome.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Consider the postage stamp; its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.
~Josh Billings

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Defeat is simply a signal to press onward.
~Helen Keller

How long should you try? Until.
~Jim Rohn

picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/safetylast/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A Letter To My ED: I See You For What You Are

I would love to call you names, hurl abuse, but I'll keep this clean. (im sweet like that)
Up until a few weeks ago, I thought you had only been in my life on and off.
But you are tricky, you changed forms so many times. The times I thought you were gone, you actually had a bigger hold on me. I was just pretending you weren't there, and I didn't know why I was so miserable, and I hated myself just as much.
But you, have robbed me of so many things. I hate you. My family hates you. My ex-boyfriends hate you. You are poison.
How ever many years ago now, you came to comfort me because I was sad, I thought you were helping. I thought you were teaching me to control my life, to feel better about myself.

That summer was probably the last summer I really loved being intimate with anyone. You took that from me.
When my friends want to go have fun going out, you told me I couldn't. When people told me I was talented, you told me they were lying.
When I walked into a room, you told me everyone thought I was disgusting.
When I see other girls, you told me they see me as masculine and different.
When people organise events and fun activities.. you think of excuses to get out of them.
You are the first voice I hear in the morning, and the last voice I hear at night. And I am so sick of the sound of you.
You have affected every avenue of my life and you own all of my mental real estate.
Well guess what?
I see you now.
I see you for what you are, and I am going to get rid of you. In fact I have already started. It is my main goal in life, I really don't think you stand a chance.
And I am going to tell people about you.
And I am going to get help to do get rid of you.
As much as I hate you, when I am better I'll move on from that hate, I wont be bitter, because you don't even deserve that much energy. Instead I will be happy!
And when you are gone I am going to nourish my body, and love my soul, and go out with friends, and walk around with my head held high. Every morning when I wake up I am going to be grateful that you are gone. Every night I am going to sleep sweetly knowing that you have been beaten!
And I am going to try and help other people know exactly what you are, and I want to prevent people from befriending you, and I want to make sure when I have children they never even hear you speak.
I'll be free!
Fuck yeah!

Written by: Lou Lou
Lou Lou says on her blog, Boost Forward, "I am on a path to becoming a woman enjoying wellness and I have a lot of hope."

*See sidebar menu for more ED poetry and writings

*Click here to have your Eating Disorders/Body Image poetry/writings featured on Weighing The Facts

Picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcostin/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Recovery Quote Of The Week: December 22nd, 2009

Kindness is like snow~ it beautifies everything it covers.
Author Unknown

*click image to see larger version.


picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougbrown47/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Eating Disorder Recovery Quotes: Forgiveness

Whether it's the wrongs we have done (to others or ourselves), or the wrongs that others have committed against us, forgiveness is necessary in order to move forward with our lives, to be happy, and to recover.

Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. It's not a magic eraser, or a way to excuse or justify offending behavior (or to allow it to continue). It's a way of letting go of our anger, resentment, embarrassment, and pain. It empowers us, allowing us to regain peace and begin healing.

Forgiveness isn't always easy. It's usually very challenging. It takes practice, just like any other worthwhile skill.

________

Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively.
~David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.
~Catherine Ponder

Forgiveness is giving up the possibility of a better past.
~Unknown

Forgive or Relive.
~Unknown

It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
~Jessamyn West

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
~Lewis B. Smedes

We achieve inner health only through forgiveness - the forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves.
~ Joshua Loth Liebman

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
~Mark Twain

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.
~Bryant H. McGill

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
~Robert Muller

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time.
~Sara Paddison

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
~Oscar Wilde

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.
~Alan Paton

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
~Norman Cousins

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.
~George MacDonald

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
~Hannah Moore

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than for being right.
~JK Rowling

Most of us can forgive and forget; we just don't want the other person to forget that we forgave.
~Ivern Ball

Forgiveness means that you've decided not to let it keep festering inside even if it only comes up once in awhile.
~Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
~Paul Boese

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
~Gerald Jampolsky

Without forgiveness, there's no future.
~Desmond Tutu

True forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.
~David Ridge

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.
~William Arthur Ward

We are full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.
~Voltaire

Anger makes us smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.
~Cherie Carter Scott

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.
~George Herbert

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.
~George Herbert

Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.
~Anonymous

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury.
~E. H. Chapin

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
~Indira Gandhi

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
~Elbert Hubbard

*more Recovery Quotes and Quotes of the Week can be found in the sidebar drop down menus.

original picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adebond1/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

When You Don't Know If You Want Recovery From Your Eating Disorder

Usually when a person has a disease, they want to get better.
When you have Anorexia, you may be unsure if you want recovery. As with any addiction, you may be able to see many reasons to recover. But you still never feel like you 100% want recovery.
The challenge is to try recovery anyway -- if you're waiting around to feel 100% motivated, you could be waiting around until you die. Literally. Make a list of reasons to recover. Keep adding to this list whenever you can."

If you haven't had the opportunity to see the wonderful ED Recovery videos of Holdingon on youtube, please check them out.

Eating Disorders In the News: Aug 2008

Size Zero: Here We Go Again
Super-skinny models dominate the autumn fashion shows, and now MTV is actively promoting competitive dieting. Jonathan Owen and John Sunyer report Sunday, 31 August 200

"As the New York fashion industry prepares to launch new collections starting on Friday, followed by London on 14 September, attention is again drawn to models and their weight.

After the furore at London Fashion Week last spring, with calls for a ban on size-zero models, not only has nothing been done, but the unrealistic super-skinny image is now being positively promoted again internationally.

MTV is under fire for promoting competitive dieting and fuelling the damaging size-zero catwalk culture, following the announcement that it is to launch a controversial new TV show in which girls must lose between 30 and 80lb in the hope of becoming a model. The channel is advertising the show Model Maker with a request for "girls willing to shed the pounds" in a three-month boot camp in a quest to become a "self-confident, high-profile fashion model".

Recruitment adverts – featuring the statement "Women come in all shapes and sizes, but models don't. Skinny, no body fat and size zero are the words and phrases associated with models. Chubby, well-fed, and big-boned are not ..." – have been condemned by eating-disorder charities as promoting extreme dieting."

Read in full here.

------------------------------------------------

Eating Disorders Aren't Cool

Windsor Star. Published: Saturday, August 30, 2008

"A Quebec retailer of women's clothes is justifiably being praised for pulling from shelves a run of 450,000 catalogues featuring images of borderline anorexic models. Peter Simons of La Maison Simons acted quickly to recall the catalogues because he felt the images were "unsuitable" and "destructive to a more vulnerable portion of the population which is exposed to anorexia.'

Read in full here.
-----------------------------------------------

Binge Eaters Not Getting Help
By Siobhan Courtney BBC News Fenella Lemonsky is a compulsive over eater.

"The 40-year-old from London said she has had issues with food from childhood.

"When things used to go wrong, the food was there," she said.

"I would turn to it and it would make me feel better. I have been trapped in a destructive cycle of binge and over-eating all my life."

Whilst stroking her dog Simbur, Fenella talks openly about her ritual of binge eating.

"It would be secretive, I would eat in private, all binge eaters do.

"It doesn't matter where you are, as long as there is space to put the food in front of you and then just get the food down, that's the most important thing."

Read in full here.

-------------------------------------------------

The Dark Side of a Midnight Feast

Telegraph.co.uk

"Nocturnal eaters who wake up to devour calories are suffering from a recognised illness, says Tamsin Kelly. Nigella Lawson may have made the midnight munchies look glamorous as she crept downstairs to whip up feasts in her clinging black satin dressing-gown.

But for sufferers of night eating syndrome, excessive and uncontrollable feasting during the night can cause misery. In typical cases, people who suffer from night eating syndrome are prone to stress and disrupted sleep.

Each time they wake, they head for the kitchen to eat food high in carbohydrates, such as chocolate, cake, bread and biscuits. Night eaters may consume half their daily calorie intake after their evening meal and this frequently leads to weight gain. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found typical nocturnal eaters consumed 500 calories more than those whose sleep was undisturbed."

Read in full here.

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Skill Based Therapy May Curb Eating Disorders
Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - "Women who suffer from bulimia or binge-eating disorder and who have borderline personality may be helped with "dialectical behavior therapy," results of a pilot study suggest.

Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a form of cognitive-behavior therapy originally developed for women with borderline personality disorder -- a disorder characterized by recurrent suicidal behavior and multiple problem behaviors.

Standard DBT is a comprehensive, multi-component "life skills-based" treatment targeting behaviors that threaten a person's life and interfere with therapy and overall quality of life. DBT helps people be mindful of their emotions and regulate their emotions and tolerate life's ups and downs."

Read in full here.



sources: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/sizezero-here-we-go-again-913931.html http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/editorial/story.html?id=6366504b-3cef-429f-89df-88679c14f976 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7587515.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2008/08/30/hnighteat130.xml http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL85693420080828

Anorexia: One Woman's Story

My Story: A video by katerynabilyk

Source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YNlnl7pQFuI&feature=related

Starting Recovery From An Eating Disorder

Another wonderful ED recovery video by Holdingon.



sources: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=starting+recovery+from+an+eating+disorder&search_type=

What I Gained From Giving Up My Eating Disorder: One Woman's Recovery

A youtube video by theicanc

I came across this video on youtube and love how positive it is. Though theicanc states she recovered without therapy or family support, I believe that therapy is an important part of recovery and increases success and enhances the recovery process. I also believe that being secretive can be counterproductive as it's all too familiar ground for those with eating disorders. Still, the video shows a wonderful celebration of recovery with a positive feeling that's contagious.


source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HeOzxhPa__Y

Eating Disorder Help: Hotlines, Organizations, and Websites

*If you know of a hotline, website, and/or organization not listed here please leave me the information in the comment section and I'll be glad to add them.
Thank You.


Hotlines:

• Anorexia Nervosa and Associate Disorders (ANAD) 1-630- 577-1330
• Boys and girls Town National Hotline: 1-800- 448-3000
• National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) 1-800-931-2237
• Mental Health America: 1-800-969-NMHA
• National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)
• Referrals to Eating Disorder specialists (US and Canada) 1-800-736-3739
• The Eating Distress Helpline (Ireland):011-44-2600366
• Thursday's Child National Call Center for at Risk Youth: 1-800-USA-KIDS
• Youth Crisis Line: 1- 800-HIT-HOME

Resources: (links)

• A Chance To Heal
• Academy For Eating Disorders
  
• Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc (ANRED)
• Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous
• Beating Eating Disorders (BEAT)
• Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA)
• Bulimia.com (Publications and Education)
  
• Eating Disorders Anonymous
• Eating Disorders Association (NI)
  
• Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention
• Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC)
• Eating-Disorder.com
• Eating Disorders Foundation Inc (EDF)
• Eating Disorders Recovery Services (EDRS)
• Eating Disorder Recovery.com
  
• Eating Disorders Recovery Resources Support Network (ED-support.com)
• F.E.A.S.T. (Families Empowered And Supporting Treatment of EDs) / Around The Dinner Table (F.E.A.S.T. Forum)
• Finding Balance (EDNOS)
• Food Addicts Anonymous (FAA)
  
• Food Addicts In Recovery (FA)
• F.R.E.E.D. Foundation
• Healthy Place.com
• Hope Network
  
• Mental Health America (MHA)
• MGEDT (Men Get Eating Disorders Too)
  
• Mirror Mirror Org
  
• National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD)
• National Association for Males with Eating Disorders, Inc. (N.A.M.E.D)
• National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
• National Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center
• National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC)
• Ophelia's Place
  
• Overeaters Anonymous (OA)
• Something Fishy
  
• The Body Positive
• The Butterfly Foundation (Australia)
  
• The Joy Project

UK/Ireland: (some headings are links)

• Anorexia and Bulimia Care: 01462 423351
• beat - beat eating disorders Helpline: 0845 6341414
• Bodywhys: 1890 200 444
• Caraline: 01582 457474
• National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence: 020 7067 5800
• Northern Initiative on Women & Eating:0191 261 7010
• SupportLine: 020 8554 9004
• The Eating Distress Helpline (Ireland): 011-44-2600366
• The International Eating Disorders Centre: 01296 330557
• The National Centre for Eating Disorders (NCFED): 0845 838 2040
• Threshold Women's Mental Health Infoline: 0808 808 6000
• Women and Eating: 0191 261 7010
• Young Minds: 0800 018 2138
• Youth Helpline: 0845 6347650

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/seychelles88/361496560/

Conversations With Claudia: The Voice Of An Eating Disorder

I was very fortunate to come across the blog of Angela Minard recently: Here and Now ~*~4 Angel~*~, "Poetry and thoughts on my journey toward healing and unlocking the silence within. Words are magic. Words have the power to heal, so find your voice, and fly!"Angela's blog feels like a comforting embrace with it's music, art, poetry, and honest, open disclosure about her recovery. She describes herself as "Living in the here and now. I can't change the past, but I am in control of my destiny. I'm taking back my life, taking back my power, and learning to spread my wings and take flight."

Her journey is so inspiring and well worth reading for yourself.

Conversations With Claudia/How Writing Has Saved Me
"Who is Claudia? She is not my friend, but she has been a part of my life for a very long time. She is the voice of my eating disorder. A voice that over time, has crowded out my own thoughts and beliefs. I'm hoping that someday I will leave her behind," began the first entry of Angela's myspace blog entry almost a year ago.

"I have an amazing therapist and also a nutritionist who thought it would be a good idea to give my eating disorder a separate identity from myself. It would be a way to delineate between my own voice and the voice of the eating disorder. I'm finally beginning to see how often Claudia talks to me. She is bossy, demanding, snide, snotty, and degrading. She is also the one with the control most of the time, but I know that needs to change if I am to survive." "I remember the first time she spoke to me. I was seven years old, sitting in church, and looking down at my thighs as I sat in the pew. "Your legs are so fat,"! She said." "Why did she choose that moment to begin her torment? I'm not really sure. My mom, grandma, and two aunts were constantly dieting and discussing their weight. I'm sure that their conversations wormed their way into what I began to also believe about myself."

"Being raped at the age of eleven was the real beginning of my self loathing and hatred. A secret that I held inside, suffocating my voice, and letting the shame eat me alive. Puberty began soon after, and with it, the ultimate betrayal of my own body." "I'm hoping that writing down some of the conversations that I have with Claudia will help me to find my own voice, and hopefully, someday, my voice will be louder than hers."

"It feels wonderful to read this again, just to see how far I have come," she says. "Is my voice louder than the voice of Claudia's? Yes, I think it is, and damn, it feels good! I believe that the writing saved me. I began writing blogs, writing poetry, writing in my journal, writing my thoughts in e-mails to my therapist. I couldn't seem to stop writing and more than that, I felt such a strong desire to share what I had written. First with my therapist, who encouraged me with compliments on the poetry that I would share and then I started blogging; Sharing with strangers about things that I had kept secret for most of my life. Through writing, I found the freedom to unlock the silence, and begin the process of healing." By Angela Minard

Blog: http://hereandnow4angel.blogspot.com/
Article source: http://hereandnow4angel.blogspot.com/2008/03/conversations-with-claudia-how-writing.htmlPicture source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86272503@N00/6414710805/