faulker053

First, my confession: I lied to a patient yesterday, and I feel the need to come clean; it’s not my norm to lie. I told this new client struggling with an eating disorder that I have never lost a patient—and that I am determined to do all I’m able to keep my patients safe. The truth is a bit different. I’ve lost one patient in the 26 years supporting patients with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. And while statistically one patient is a tiny percent of the thousands of individuals I’ve seen over the quarter century, one lost patient is one too many. I think about her every time I open my dresser drawer—she gave me a gift just two weeks before she left this world—following my compliment of the shirt she was wearing. She knew I’d get a kick; she wore it to amuse me, for sure. I don’t think it was a parting gift; her death was rather impulsive. And I think about her whenever I bike ride past the train station upon whose tracks she ended her life. She was being treated by a qua...

Perhaps a little something with that coffee? Do you fear you’ll be dealing with eating issues in your next decade—when you’re in your 30s, or 40s, 50s or beyond? Yearning to just be normal again? ( Again —because at some point in time, perhaps way back when you were a child, you lived free of all these food concerns, never counting calories or giving a thought to when and how much you consumed).   Wrestling to release your self from the hold of anorexia, binge eating or bulimia, and the preoccupation with your weight and the diet du jour ? Ready to be free of carb and fat phobia? Scared? No surprise. You don’t yet trust the next step, but know it’s time to change. Seemingly damned if you do, damned if you don’t change your relationship with food. There comes a point, a tipping point, when you realize that the cost-benefit of staying stuck is not in your favor. Don’t be fooled into believing that you’ll be happier if only you weighed a few pounds less, because it’s simply a moving t...