Eff the Six-Pack Abs
I don’t do things halfway (read: I often take things to the extreme). So, if you’d have told me even three years ago that I would be shopping for a bikini to wear in San Diego this summer, I’d have laughed in your face. Impossible. See, I believed perfection was possible. When it came to […]
Anorexia for an Asian American: A Recovery Story
I was 11 years old when I started struggling with my first eating disorder. I did not know what anorexia was, nor did I know that the pinching of skin folds between my fingers, under my arms, and on my stomach, was symptomatic. I did not know that it wasn’t healthy to obsess over my […]
Substance Abuse and Eating Disorders
Substance abuse problems may begin before or during an eating disorder, or even after recovery. Those struggling with co-occurring substance use and disordered eating should speak with a trained professional who can understand, diagnose, and treat both substance use disorders and eating disorders. “There’s a lot of symptom substitution. We find that individuals who are […]
Balancing Motherhood and Self-Care
There is a tendency for the media to portray eating disorders as superficial illnesses of female adolescence. The limited scope of these stories mitigates both the severe emotional and physical consequences inherent to eating disorders, as well as their prevalence across other genders and age groups. Rarely, if ever, do we hear stories about people […]
Better Place
“Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.” Our fairytale started in October 2014, when we least expected it. We were introduced through a mutual friend over a year before, and had quickly become close. We connected over our love of Disney, Yorkies, and our eating […]
The Weight I Carry
The family story about me that has enthralled me most has to do with my thighs. My mother says that the nurses who cared for me in the hospital nursery would pick up my newborn legs and laugh about the immense size of my thighs–far too big for an average-weight baby, they chided. Eventually, this […]
Exercise Is Not My Identity
In college, I found comfort in something I could control. I found comfort in something that allowed me to get on a higher platform in running. I dropped my time by four seconds in one year and for the 800 meters, that was a lot. I was on the record-breaking DMR team that went to […]
3 NEDA Writers Share What It’s Like to Struggle with Orthorexia
Although not formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, awareness of orthorexia among the general public and within the eating disorder community is on the rise. The word “orthorexia” was coined in 1998 and means an obsession with proper or “healthful” eating. Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the […]
Bullying, Disability, and Eating Disorders
I was born 3 months pre-mature, weighing 1 pound, 9 ounces. As a result of being born pre-maturely, I have mild cerebral palsy that affects how I walk. Growing up with a physical disability was very difficult; every day at school I was verbally and physically bullied. This bullying took a severe toll on my […]
When Does “Healthy” Eating Become Dangerous?
In a society so obsessed with health, when does striving to be “healthy” become dangerous? When does it turn into a problem? Many people are familiar with the more commonly known eating disorders – anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, but most people don’t know about another serious eating disorder: orthorexia nervosa. Orthorexia, […]
