Eating Disorder Hope is the resource for coping with and overcoming eating disorders

Cardboard: A woman left for dead

Cardboard is an account of one woman's life-threatening eating disorder and her eventual hard-won recovery. Author Fiona Place has created Lucy, a narrator who is capable of taking the reader inside the dark and often puzzling experience of anorexia nervosa. Ashen, thin and with a thready heartbeat, Lucy cannot understand what is wrong with her. The tour leader decides she is homesick. And lying on her bed, she is left to fend for herself. Alone in her tiny hotel room Lucy wonders what she should do? Is she sick or just homesick? Reluctantly, she decides to fly to an English speaking country. And to her embarrassment is taken off the plane in a wheelchair. Hospitalized, she undergoes a range of treatments - some harsh, some ineffective, others insightful and intelligent. An astute observer, Lucy invites the reader to make sense of what it means to be ill. To understand why eating is so impossible. And as she fleshes out her journey towards a full-bodied and robust recovery, demands her distress be understood. Demands it be put into her own words. When it was first published Cardboard was recognized as a compelling portrait and one of the first books to understand the importance of the role of narrative in the recovery process. Similarly today when much of the focus on eating disorders concerns decoding the genetics and biology of the condition, this novel continues to provide an understanding of the individual's affective experience and the socio-cultural context in which it occurs.  

"An intellectual and psychological tour de force."
Dr Liz Ferrier, Advisory Editor, m/c - a journal of media and culture, Queensland University

"One of the best novels ever to be published in Australia."
Amanda Lohrey, novelist

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Eating Disorder Information for Australia

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Articles

Problem of Anorexia for Male Australians

International Business Times, 25 April, 2010

An alarming percentage of teenagers and youngsters are taking up numerous dangerous methods just to lose weight.

Studies showed that about 68 percent of girls ages 15 years old and up are already on diet and, out of these girls, there would be some who will binge drink or cause self harm and others will resort to dieting that is dangerous.

According to a study of adolescents aged 11 to 15, Sixteen percent of the girls and seven percent for the boys had resorted to starving, smoking, vomiting and laxative abuse in order to shed some pounds.

The Butterfly Foundation states that Australia has the highest levels of men who are in the state of anorexia. An alarming ratio of one out of four children with anorexia in Australia are boys.

Nurse practitioner Elizabeth Burns at Mary Walker Health Center said, "The problem with anorexic people, who are restricting their food intake, is that it is hard for them to recognize that they have a problem.

Cross-cultural differences in the macronutrient intakes of women with anorexia nervosa in Australia and Singapore

European Eating Disorders Review
Vol. 16, Issue 6, Date: November/December 2008, 427-435
Nerissa Li-Wey Soh, Stephen Touyz, Timothy Dobbins, Lois Surgenor, Simon Clarke, Michael Kohn, Ee Lian Lee, Vincent Leow, Elizabeth Rieger, Ken Eng Khean Ung, Garry Walter

Abstract

Body image disturbance in young North European and East Asian women with and without eating disorders in Australia and in Singapore

European Eating Disorders Review
Volume 16, Issue 4, Date: July/August 2008, 287-296
Nerissa Li-Wey Soh, Stephen Touyz, Timothy Dobbins, Lois Surgenor, Simon Clarke, Michael Kohn, Ee Lian Lee, Vincent Leow, Elizabeth Rieger, Ken Eng Khean Ung, Garry Walter

Abstract

Resources

Butterfly Foundation

The Butterfly Foundation provides support for Australians who suffer from eating disorders and negative body image issues, and their carers.
http://www.thebutterflyfoundation.org.au

Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders (CEDD)

The NSW CEDD is an online service which aims to improve access to expert services for people who have an eating or dieting disorder.
http://www.cedd.org.au/

Eating Disorders Association Inc (EDA)

The EDA Inc (Qld) aims to improve the intervention, education and support for all people affected by eating disorders.
http://www.eda.org.au

Eating Disorders Foundation Inc (EDF)

EDF Inc. aims to provide sufferers of eating disorders and their families and friends with up to date information about the various eating disorders and about services and resources to assist recovery.
http://www.edf.org.au

Eating Disorders Foundation of Victoria

The Eating Disorders Foundation of Victoria (Inc) is a state-wide non-profit charity organisation which aims to support those whose lives are affected by anorexia and bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders.
http://www.eatingdisorders.org.au

GATS Counselling & Treatment Services

A cutting edge treatment program for eating disorders and other addictions.
http://www.gatscounselling.com

Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders (CEED)

The Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders aims to reduce the occurrence, impact and duration of eating disorders in people of all ages, through the provision of education, training, consultation and research to health care providers at all levels.
http://www.rch.org.au/ceed

Centre for Women's Action on Eating Issues (ISIS)

Organization offering counseling, referrals, resources research, and more.http://www.isis.org.au

Research

Caring for Someone with an Eating Disorder: Different perspectives

My name is Kerri Coomber and I am completing a PhD in Psychology at Deakin University, Australia.  I am looking at the experience of caring for someone recovering from an eating disorder. While we now know a lot about what this is like, we don’t know whether the person in recovery and the carer see the experience of recovery and caregiving similarly or whether their experience is different. I’d like to invite you to share your perspective.

Both carer and the person with an eating disorder would each complete a short questionnaire.  You won’t see each other’s responses and what you say will have any identifying information kept separate.   You will provide a code so I can match up your questionnaires.

The carer questionnaire ask you about how the eating disorder affects you, as a carer, how you deal with everyday problems related to the eating disorder, and how your general health has been lately.  This questionnaire will take you approximately 20 minutes to complete.
The questionnaire that the person with an eating disorder will complete will ask you about your eating disorder, where you feel you are on the road to recovery, and how you think the eating disorder affects your carer.  This questionnaire will take you about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

If you have an eating disorder, or you are a carer of someone with an eating disorder and you would like to take part, please go to the following website:
www.deakin.edu.au/psychology/research/EDCarerStudy/
Contact details: Ms Kerri Coomber @ kcoomber@deakin.edu.au

Events

September 2-3, 2010
If not dieting® Health Professional 2-day Training Program

About the If not dieting® Health Professional 2-day Training Program:
The If not dieting® health professional training program assists
Psychologists, Doctors, Nurses, Dietitians, Social Workers, and other
Allied Health Professionals, to effectively help patients achieve and
maintain a healthy weight. Not only does this exciting workshop draw
from the most current world research in the field of weight management and eating behaviour, but incorporates Dr Rick Kausman’s 20 plus years of practical and unique experience in this field, and importantly, from the experiences of thousands of his patients. The content of the training program also has input from other members of the ‘If not dieting’ team including psychologists, dietitians, a social worker, nurse and physiotherapist.

The Treacy Conference Centre, 126 The Avenue, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia.
Email: louise@ifnotdieting.com.au Phone: 03 9482 2106
PDF Flyer can be downloaded

*Conference also offered in Perth on 22nd & 23rd of July and Brisbane on 16th & 17th of August (www.ifnotdieting.com.au
for more information)

 

October 21, 2010
Keeping the Fire Burning presentation by Professor Susan Paxton and Dr. Samantha Thomas

Featuring a keynote presentation by Professor Susan Paxton, Head of School, Psychological Sciences, LaTrobe University, entitled:
Body Image and Eating Disorders - early intervention in adolescents,
young adults and adults in midlife.

Also, featuring a keynote presentation by Dr. Samantha Thomas, Senior Research Fellow, and Head of the Consumer Health Research Group (CHaRGe) at Monash Unversity, entitled: Are popular approaches to the ‘obesity epidemic’ doing more harm than
good? People over their most healthy weight have their say!

7.30-9.45pm. The Treacy Conference Centre, 126 The Avenue, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia.
Email: louise@ifnotdieting.com.au Phone: 03 9482 2106
PDF Flyer can be downloaded