faulker053

Against all odds She's not someone you'd expect to recovery. Decades living with an eating disorder, endless barriers to jump over.  But seeing the progress that my patient (I'll refer to as) Amy has made should provide hope to anyone who has long given up. Yes, recovery is possible. Not easy. Not quick. But possible. Please read through the end and share your thoughts with "Amy".  In the last 50+ years, I cannot remember a time in which I was satisfied (even slightly) with my body.   As a matter of fact, I view it as disgusting and embarrassing.   Even at my sickest state, I was convinced I was the fattest one in the room.    In this point of my recovery, I deem it important to reflect on how far I’ve come.   Below is my life’s journey thus far. It is uncertain to me why I have suffered from Eating Disorders for most of my life.    However, in my past, could lay the meaning for all of this.   My mom had EDs always.   My ED could be...

I want your input. I need to hear your voices. For EDAW 2015, I have volunteered to present to two medical residency programs—one in Boston, MA and one in Providence, RI on what doctors need to know about eating disorders.  I've incorporated recommendations from twitter responders and from Aspire , but I welcome more input. Here's what I have to share with new doctors so far: Avoid the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ approach .   Patients rarely volunteer behaviors they feel ashamed of—bingeing, purging, diet pill and laxative abuse.   So providers need to ask. Nicely. Casually. Non-judgmentally. Include basic ED screening questions at routine visits. Early action is not just for college admissions . Eating disorders are best identified early and treated promptly. We wouldn’t simply wait it out to see if blood sugars simply turn around in a patient with type 1 diabetes. Take eating disorders as seriously as you would cancer, or The time is now for improving medical management of...

We can't always tell just by looking at someone  that  something isn't right. There are no excuses for perpetuating misinformation about eating disorders. No justification exists for minimizing eating disorders based on BMI, for generalizing them by age or gender, or for continuing to blame parents for causing them. While the news media may sensationalize and sometimes distort research, social media can fight back to correct misinformation. So read on, and please share! Today starts a week devoted to spreading the word about eating disorders with the theme “I had no idea!” Thank you NEDA, the National Eating Disorder Association and promoter of Eating Disorder Awareness Week, for inspiring this post. Random thoughts come to mind when I consider what this theme means to me—and what it might mean to you.  My beliefs and knowledge about eating disorders have evolved over many years, to which I credit the Academy for Eating Disorder listserve, the FBT researchers and Laura Co...