Showing posts with label ed blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ed blogs. Show all posts

Eating Disorders and Body Image Blogs: What Some Are Discussing




A New Girl Guide Badge For Self-Esteem. Has Guiding Gone Mad?

As I was reading The Globe and Mail this morning, I came across an article written by the very talented Margaret Wente. Entitled "Not every girl can be a Winner," I was dumbstruck that the Girl Guides now have a self-esteem badge. Say what?

In my youth, I spent years as a member of Brownies and Girl Guides. I traipsed through the woods with the rest of the pack, trying to light fires by rubbing two sticks together in the pouring rain, suffering cuts and scratches and burns from campfires, getting lost in the wood (still can't figure out how a compass works), near-drowning in canoes on choppy lakes, and learning how to do the sheep shank and the round-turn-and-two-half-hitches knots.

Summers were spent at Girl Guide Camp building lean-tos and roughing it in the woods. It was a rough-and-tumble life and I loved every minute of it. Nary was a mention made of my having to study up to earn a self-esteem badge.

Read in full here.
2Medusa.com


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FTC Charges Hoodia Marketers

FTC Charges Marketers Of 'Hoodia' Weight Loss Supplements With Deceptive Advertising

The Federal Trade Commission has charged the suppliers of supposed Hoodia gordonii, also known as hoodia, with deceptive advertising for claiming that using their product would lead to weight loss and appetite suppression. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that the defendants not only made false and deceptive claims about what hoodia could do, but also, on one or more occasions, claimed that their product was Hoodia gordonii, a plant native to southern Africa, when it was not. The FTC has requested that the court order the defendants not to make false or deceptive statements or destroy documents pending trial. The Commission seeks to permanently bar the defendants from deceptively advertising hoodia, and to obtain disgorgement of the defendants’ profits from their hoodia sales. The defendants allegedly made false and deceptive claims when advertising their fake hoodia to trade customers who manufactured and marketed supplements.

Read in full here.
mariasols.com

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Another Death To ED

Sarah's Death at 19 Left Her Family Struggling to Understand the Power of an Eating Disorder.

By Caitlin Gibson
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Leah's voice was calm on the phone.

I'm on my way home, she said. Sarah died this morning.

In the steady tone my best friend would use to say she had a flat tire or was late for class, Leah explained that she was about to board a flight to join her family as they prepared for her little sister's funeral.

Leah had known on some level that this might happen. She'd read the books, done the research and understood that girls with eating disorders got better, or they didn't. She saw Sarah as what she was: the everygirl of her illness, not immune because she was smart and beautiful, popular and athletic. But the knowledge that it might happen did nothing to prepare Leah.

Read in full here.
freedfoundation.org/blog

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Woman With Anorexia Issues Public Plea For Help

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~Mother Teresa

I think it’s a tragic conviction of the woeful inadequacy of our current health care system that a 20-year-old college student with anorexia who wants help has no other recourse than to turn to the public in getting that help. Karina Dewing of Cape Girardeau, Missouri today issued this plea in her local newspaper: I am a 20-year-old college student, I weigh 83 pounds. Shocking? What’s even more shocking is that I can’t get the help I need. There are no treatment programs in Cape Girardeau or the surrounding area for those who suffer from eating disorders.

Read in full here.
the-f-word.org/blog

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Freedom And Joy

More than once this weekend, I have found myself dancing around in my kitchen, absolutely filled with joy. I'm not even sure why, and I suppose that is the best part. I have no reasons. I just feel at peace with where I am at the moment. I'm making good choices and decisions, and that really hasn't happened in my life for a very long time. I'm not afraid to go to sleep at night because I fear what the next day will bring. I'm looking forward to the warmth of summer, the sunshine, and spending time with my family. I feel as if I can reach out and touch the changes in my life, and for once, not feel anxiety, apprehension, and worry over what may happen.

Read in full here.
hereandnow4angel.blogspot.com

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Values: Me vs ED

I did this exercise on values in a group at the EDU last year and it taught me some things about myself, so I thought I would share it. People with eating disorders often say that they have no idea who they are outside of their illness. I think it's really important to find out different things that make you *you* so that you can shove them in the eating disorder's face when it tries to convince you that you are nothing without it ;)

In the group we were given this handout called 'Choosing your values' from a book called 'Get out of your mind and into your life' (which is a great title, hehe). It had a list of different relationships (e.g. marriage, friendship) and aspects of every day life (e.g. work, spirituality), and the idea was to write down what sort of person you would like to be in that area of your life and then try and distill your answer down to one key phrase. These were my answers, with my most important values in italics:

Read in full here.
katie-underthestars.blogspot.com

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Eating Disorder Myth #26: You Don't Need Anyone


Rewind back to the Friday night before Easter, mid-meltdown while talking to my mom and sister.

My sister told my mom that she wants to support me in my recovery more than anything, but she needs to know that I'm really trying. This was really upsetting to me - she wasn't HERE when I was at the height of restricting. She had no idea how limited my intake really was, and what a big deal it is for me to be eating 2% yogurt instead of fat-free, or heaping avocado on to my sandwiches. Things that normal people would do without a second's hesitation are significant milestones in my journey to recovery.

Read in full here.
elle-dente.blogspot.com

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Raising An Eating Disorder-Free Child

In a recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, 101 children aged 5-13 who had been diagnosed with eating disorders were studied. 78% were so severely ill they had to be admitted to hospital. About half required nasogastric tube feeding and one third were given psychotropic medications such as anti-depressants. Only 27% met the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa while half did not meet the weight criteria (which requires the patient to be less than 85% of their ideal weight for their height). 61% had potentially life-threatening complications such as malnutrition.

The study has shown that the criteria for diagnosing eating disorders in adults should not be applied to young children because they are not being recognised as having eating disorders until they are extremely ill.

The study also found that a quarter of the sufferers were boys.

Read in full here.
melindahutchings.blogspot.com

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How Big Are Those Robes

As you probably know, Supreme Court Justice David Souter has indicated his plans to retire later this spring, and, as it is in the great game of politics, pundits and commentators have been speculating about who will replace him. Names of several really fascinating people have been tossed around (including my boyfriend’s civil procedure professor, Judge Diane Wood), most of whom have been women.

But apparently, too many of them are fat women (h/t David.)

Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that [Elena] Kagan and [Sonia] Sotomayor might be too fat to replace him. A commentator on the site DemConWatch.com noted that of the three most-mentioned candidates “the oldest (federal judge Diane Wood) is the only one who looks healthy,” while Kagan and Sotomayor “are quite overweight. That’s a risk factor that they may not last too long on the court because of their health.”

Read in full here.
happybodies.wordpress.com

* apologies for the multiple postings of this post as I tried to fix a glitch with the blog.
sources linked above

Eating Disorder Bloggers: What Others Are Posting About



A sampling of what other bloggers have recently been talking about on their Eating Disorder Blogs:


ANOREXIA: A FEEDING TUBE COULD BE IN YOUR FUTURE
Medusa

The ins and outs of PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) and NG (nasogastric) feeding tubes...

So, what are NG and PEG feeding tubes?

They are medical devices used to provide nutrition to those who cannot obtain nutrition by swallowing. Feeding tubes are often a last resort for chronic anorexics.

An NG tube is passed through the nose, down the esophagus and into the stomach, and a PEG tube is inserted through a small incision in the abdomen into the stomach.
Read in full here.
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RECOVERY OR RECOVERED?
Life With Cake: Bulimia Recovery Blog

A couple of years ago, I volunteered at a nonprofit eating disorder organization, USF Hope House for Eating Disorders. Upon meeting me, the director posed the question, "Do you think it's possible to be "recovered" from an eating disorder?"

With all of my OA program knowledge, and knowing that her program wasn't 12-Step based, instantly I replied, "No." Was she serious? Recover from an eating disorder? I had learned better.

Since then, I have questioned the term "recovered" often. "Recovered" could be rather subjective, depending on who you ask. Read in full here.
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WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DROP OUTS?
ED Bites: Carrie Arnold

Eating disorder research is made especially difficult due to the large number of patients who prematurely drop out of treatment. Sometimes, this happens in such numbers that the studies are, essentially, invalid. This is also why studies of eating disorders in adolescents are much more successful than those in adults: parents can usually (but not always) be called upon to insist that their child receive care, even when the child isn't exactly enthusiastic about the whole idea.
Read in full here.
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ED RECOVERY: DEALING WITH THE UNEXPECTED
ED Recovery Blog

One of the first things that anyone tends to learn when they start to take a closer look at eating disorders is that it’s not really about the food: it’s about emotions and control. When everything is upside down and feels twisted inside out, sometimes it feels like the only thing that you can control is what you do or do not eat - and in what quantity. Part of recovery is recognizing that there are other ways of taking control in life and learning “more effective coping mechanisms.”
Read in full here.
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SIX-YEAR-OLDS AND EATING DISORDERS
Feed Me: Harriet Brown

This Canadian article, published last November, is one of the few I've seen anywhere that overtly links comments and teasing about weight with eating disorders. A significant percentage of teens with eating disorders are overweight at some point. As this piece points out, other people's responses to their weight can start them spiraling down into the hell of an eating disorder. Read in full here.
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THE TIES THAT BOND
F-Word

I took college courses in my senior year of high school and attended for two years after, but then took a several-year hiatus. When I returned in my early-to-mid-20s, I was thus often the oldest student in the class. Combined with the fact that I had a professional job and had been financially independent for years already, I often felt old much in the same way I imagine Clint Eastwood feels standing next to the cast of High School Musical.

So, I well understood the palpable discomfort of the woman, who looked to be about the age of my mom, walking into my women’s history class for the first time on the third day of class. If I, one who is approaching just 30, feel out of place in our mostly undergrad class, I’m sure this woman felt very awkward indeed. Read in full here.