Fall is a time of transition, and the evidence is all around us. Leaves change color and fall down, our schedules shift to include more time indoors, and activities go from adventurous to cozy. If you or someone you love is in recovery from an eating disorder, this season may pose more problems than comfort.
Eating disorder recovery is challenging for everyone involved, including parents of those with eating disorders. While working through recovery is more rewarding than staying stuck in an eating disorder, it is important to remember that recovery is not a linear process. This can make supporting your child in recovery feel demanding and exhausting.
“Having an eating disorder” can bring up ideas of many symptoms that seem to only fall into two categories of eating disorders: anorexia or bulimia. Due to this incomplete picture of these illnesses, other eating disorders, such as orthorexia, might go unnoticed, leaving many eating disorders inaccurately diagnosed or not diagnosed at all. It is important to bring awareness to eating disorders that can fly under the radar, such as orthorexia.
You have likely heard of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and even binge eating disorder (BED). But have you ever heard of Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder or OSFED? Chances are, this name comes with more questions than answers. However, about 30% of people who seek treatment for an eating disorder are diagnosed with OSFED. Learning about this pervasive disorder is essential to spot the signs, reach out for help, or voice your concern to someone you think might be struggling.
A new school year comes with new schedules, classes, activities, and responsibilities like work, raising a family, caring for family members, or extracurricular activities. And as if all that does not sound chaotic enough, for those in eating disorder recovery, we still need to add our recovery and meal plan to the list of priorities.
Labor Day can be an exciting time to gather with friends and family to celebrate summer. However, for people in recovery from an eating disorder, this holiday can pose undue stress and overwhelm. As with anything out of someone’s routine, holidays can pose unpredictable challenges in recovery.
Being vulnerable about your eating disorder can be terrifying, even with the ones we most love and trust. The shame and stigma surrounding eating disorders make it difficult to breach the topic of your mental health with the people who care about you.
An eating disorder diagnosis is overwhelming and challenging. It is common for those with eating disorders also to have other mental health disorders. Anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are mental health disorders that often co-occur with eating disorders.
It's August, meaning millions of students plan to return to school. Whether you are a student returning to high school or college, your schedule will become more hectic. For some people, this change of routine is overwhelming. School comes with physical, emotional, social, and mental challenges and can cause unhealthy stress levels due to the pressure to perform. The change of routine can add an extra layer of difficulty when in eating disorder recovery.
A new trend is sweeping social media: “girl dinner” videos, where women post their food with amusing, satirical audio. However, this trend is not as innocent as it may seem. This video trend intends to show what women see as viable meal options that require little to no effort. But like many videos that portray what one person eats on a given day, these videos can cause more harm than good.
People with eating disorders often struggle with perfectionism. The desire to control things can manifest in disordered eating and movement habits. However, the urge to maintain perfection does not stop there. It usually presents itself in other life aspects, such as school.
Returning to school after recovering from an eating disorder can be challenging. Potentially triggering situations like this one can be hard, especially after working to break disordered cycles and forge a new path in recovery.
