Growing up with a Sibling Struggling with an Eating Disorder

Nature Barley Field in Sun Light Witnessing your sibling combat a life-threatening illness can be excruciatingly painful and emotionally conflicting. You knew them before their disorder overtook their life, you witness their moments of victory as well as their moments of darkness. All at once, you may feel scared, sorrowful, helpless, guilty, angry, confused, happy, hopeful, and overwhelmed. You cannot take this burden [...]
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Toxic Shame & Eating Disorders

Nature Road Through Redwood National Park When Shame Becomes Toxic Shame “occurs in the context of self-reflection or self-perception and involves a fear or expectation of eliciting disgust in others [1].” As such, experiencing shame, in general, does not feel great. It becomes a new beast entirely when those feelings of shame reach a level considered to be toxic. Toxic shame involves [...]
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Demi Lovato Shares Insight into her Eating Disorder

Demi Lovato Demi Lovato is a veteran in a culture where many celebrities have just begun to use their star power to speak out on mental health issues. As an actress and singer since childhood, Lovato has always been very upfront about her struggles with depression, substance use, self-harming behaviors, bullying, and an eating disorder. Her courage in [...]
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Orthorexia & Processing Emotions

Nature Path in Woods into Sunlight Despite not being an officially recognized eating disorder diagnosis, orthorexia nervosa (ON) has become fairly well-known. Characterized by an unhealthy obsession with “healthy” eating, orthorexia impacts approximately 21 to 57.6% of people in the United States [1]. A great deal of research has been done on symptoms of “official” eating disorder diagnoses such as anorexia nervosa, [...]
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Food Addiction and the Brain

sketch of the human brain and Cortical Folding The concept of “food addiction” may stir up a lot of thoughts and questions in your mind. “Is this really a thing or a diet culture concept?” “Isn’t food inherently addictive because we actually need it?” “Is this an actual diagnosis?” All fair questions – the term “food addiction” could mean a million different things. Hopefully, [...]
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Developing Emotion Regulation Skills in Eating Disorder Recovery

Eden Featured Profile Image 5 It is a universal human experience to encounter overwhelming or turbulent emotion-states and learn how to deal with them with skills such as emotion regulation. Struggling with doing so is a common trait in many psychiatric conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, substance use disorders, borderline personality disorder, and, you guessed it, [...]
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