Author Susan Burton says food has been the site of her anxieties for as long as she can remember. For decades the editor at This American Life struggled with eating disorders. Through therapy, Burton connected her disordered eating to her parents’ divorce and not getting emotional needs met. She says that one of the reasons she was…
Dietician Aparna Ramadurai and her daughter, Maya, a high school student, share with host Lissa Kreisler that eating disorders are a mental illnesses which require support and resources to recover. Aparna and Maya have been volunteering at the Eating Disorders Resource Center where they work with people young and old who have the disease and…
On behalf of the entire EDRC team, we hope that all of you are healthy and safe. The unprecedented conditions during this time resulted in the cancellation of our annual reception for our winners, so we have put together this congratulatory post to celebrate their outstanding achievements. The judges and readers were deeply impressed by…
Acceptance can be an important and monumental part of one’s recovery from eating disorders. To elaborate on its prominence and her own connection to the topic, our very own Janice Bremis, Executive Director and Founder of the EDRC, spoke with Laurelee Roark on her podcast It’s Not About Food. Her podcast centers around a variety of…
The moment has finally come for the Eating Disorders Resource Center to announce the winners of the annual Be-You-tiful Be Free writing contest! Every spring, our organization is astounded by the depth and quality of each student’s submission. We have read countless poems and essays that express a depth of emotion, thought, and vulnerability—something that…
As soon as it became clear that the only way to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus was to isolate and stay indoors, talk of the “quarantine 15,” a horrifyingly timely update to the “freshman 15,” was inevitable. Stuck inside our homes with only Netflix and snacks as comfort in the middle of what…
As the presidential race heats up, candidates are weighing in on how they would reform the nation’s broken mental health system. Pundits have linked its flaws to a range of headline issues. Behavioral health care shortages purportedly exacerbate the increased frequency of mass gun violence, the negative effects of social media, and even the anxieties produced by the economic, environmental,…
By Carolyn Costin, MA, Med, LMFT, CEDS, FAED “The challenging behaviors of eating disorders are entrenched in daily life, specifically around meal times, and cannot be avoided. Assistance during everyday living can make the difference between recovery or not.” (NEDC, 2017) Eating disorder coaches are emerging as an adjunct to standard treatment, filling a much-needed gap…
By Kathryn Cortese, LCSW, ACSW, CEDS Ever wonder what trust really means while working on your eating disorder recovery? What does trusting another person feel like? And does it matter that much? Trust, trust, trust – a concept thrown about when getting a foothold on recovery – so what’s the magic? Typically, upon entering treatment…
The first step to regulating your emotions is to recognize, and become aware of, your own nervous system. Learning to differentiate what is you, and what is a dis-regulated nervous system, is a huge step toward feeling better. One way to increase your awareness is to develop a sense of how the nervous system is…