People who struggle with addictions, eating disorders, or mood disorders have finely-tuned methods of dealing with emotions by using substances, eating disorder behaviors, or engaging in self harm or other ineffective coping skills; each of these methods keep emotions stuffed inside. And, unfortunately, when not used as intended, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Distress Tolerance skills … Read More
“I Had No Idea” was the theme of this year’s National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. We had a whole program of events on campus in honor of the week and all of the brave women suffering from, recovering from, and thriving beyond their eating disorders, as well as those who love and support them. The … Read More
Growing up, my family life was wrought with negative experiences common to many other children of alcoholics. Despite the difficult times and life traumas, I have very fond memories of watching the Olympics as a family. I’m grateful to have carried that tradition to my current family, as an adult woman in recovery. One of … Read More
Social media sites have been pressed into overdrive this week by reaction to the season finale of “The Biggest Loser.” This is because a 24-year old woman, Rachel Frederickson, was declared the proud winner of the show by losing a record-breaking percentage of her total body weight. Speaking of proud – we cannot even begin … Read More
Addiction to drugs or alcohol is a medical illness, a disease of the brain. And yet, there are those who continue to insist that substance addiction is a choice. Several weeks ago, Matthew Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing on the highly successful Friends sitcom, traveled to the UK to lend assistance to a new drug … Read More
I had the opportunity to bring my step-kids with me to work on Dec. 26th. They spent the day watching movies, playing games and such on their I-things in my office. They got to hear the 2 code greens called over the intercom on Willow that day, and have now identified Willow as the problem … Read More
Making a daily gratitude list was a critical part of my early recovery. I finally found a sponsor who had what I wanted. Before I was actually ready to work with a sponsor, I spent about a year “working” with people who did not have what I wanted, and with whom I did not really … Read More
Last week, preparing to fly to Atlanta to give a talk on co-occurring eating disorders and substance abuse, my husband approached me after my morning meditation/prayer time. I was sitting on the floor, unshowered, no makeup, full strength coffee breath, wearing sweat pants and a hoodie with my meditation candle still burning in the background. … Read More
Many women and girls with eating disorders receive benefit from prescription drugs and behavioral therapy. However, all of us in the mental health field have seen patients that simply can’t seem to recover from the disorder no matter what treatment strategies we try. This is why the result of new brain research is so notable. … Read More
The scene: a suburban Chicago Halloween costume store. I ventured in this past Saturday with my 11-year-old step son…crowded…loud…very high energy. He wanted to be a scary jester or a ghoul. Fairly quickly, we found a sufficiently ghoulish head-to-toe costume for him in the boys section. We took a peek at the girls’, women’s and … Read More
