3 Mindful Eating Tips to Get You Through Chanukah
Note: My boss, Dr. Conason, wrote mindful eating posts for Halloween and Thanksgiving and I’ve adapted them for Chanukah with her permission. You can read the original posts here and here. Chanukah is almost here and personally, it’s always been my favorite holiday. Unfortunately, diet culture can put a damper on holiday spirit – by making […]
Choosing Recovery After Extended Treatment
When I left treatment several months ago, it was all I had known for twelve years. I was excited to start my new life, but I also realized that I had no clue what I was doing. I had never had to be an adult, and I was now in my early 30s and trying […]
How Writing Saved My Life
Talking openly about my feelings has never come easily to me. Even when I was younger, I would rather deliver a vague response of “okay” or “I’m fine” than engage in a lengthy discussion with someone else. And that was never really a problem—at least not until people started expecting me to speak. To a […]
Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving in Recovery
The Holiday Season is here, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner – which means, if you’re anything like me, so is your anxiety. Being surrounded by endless talks of food and diets can be enough to make you want to scream, and seeing family who may or may not be supportive of your recovery […]
So You’re Ready to Add Yoga to Your Eating Disorders Recovery Plan?
Yoga, with its tenets of peacefulness, self-compassion, mindfulness, and self- empathy, both empowers and enhances recovery from eating disorders and body image despair. Yoga promotes harmony within and strengthens the relationship with the body through physical poses (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), non-harmful self-care (ahimsa), and meditation, The boom in popularity of yoga classes has resulted […]
How My OCD Evolved into an Eating Disorder
At 10 years old, I lost my mom to cancer. My dad moved us from where we’d lived for almost five years back home to be closer to relatives who could help, since he was now a single dad. I didn’t know how to process my mom’s death or the move. I don’t think anyone […]
Androgynous Bodies Come In Every Shape and Every Size
The biggest lie that Tumblr ever told me was that an androgynous body is a thin body. As a genderqueer person, someone who doesn’t strictly identify as a man or a woman, I had always craved a more “androgynous body.” I wanted to be a mish-mash of masculinity and femininity, so that when people looked […]
Trans Stories Have Power: An Interview with Sam Dylan Finch
As someone who engages in community-based radical mental health work, I believe in the power of narratives in the fight against mentalism. Although not everybody has the privilege, capacity, or desire to share their narrative, the narratives that are shared re-shape the social perception of psychological disorders. These narratives force those who are unaffected to […]
Belonging in My Own Body: A Trans Recovery Story
Why do I do karate? I’ve wanted to do a martial art since I was a kid, but my mother’s strict no-violence policy wouldn’t allow it. In college, decreased parental supervision enabled me to finally live the dream. At least, that’s what I tell people. It’s not untrue, but it’s not the whole truth either. What it is is […]
Decentering the Narrative: Trans Folks, Body Image, and EDs
Conversations surrounding eating disorders, body image, and beauty standards are generally centered on the narratives of straight, cisgender* women. However, these conversations often exclude the experiences of many LGBT people who also struggle with body image concerns and disordered eating. We as individuals and as a community have unique needs and concerns, and we often […]
