In my mid-50s, I am still working on an important task, figuring out who I am without my eating disorder…I am excited, and ready! I have learned directly that recovery from an eating disorder is not all sunshine and rainbows. Ideally, in recovery one learns to use healthy coping skills to deal with life’s stresses […]
Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes the cause is visible and sometimes it is not. The bushfires blazing over much of eastern Australia, including my beloved childhood region of East Gippsland, are sparking trauma for many people. The losses mount. Lives lost. Possessions lost. Livelihoods lost. Essential services and infrastructure lost. Small rural […]
I think it’s time my past was made public. I’ve always felt ashamed of it, I suppose, though I realize now I shouldn’t feel this way. I haven’t done anything wrong; I’ve just had an illness. From my memoir A Girl Called Tim Whether you are seven or 70, writing a diary is a great […]
Dear Friends, As we ‘mature’ the years seem to go faster, and time becomes more precious. Not knowing how much time we have we want to use it in the most meaningful way possible. I hope 2019 has been all you have wanted it to be. Goodness, I will be 70 next year and am […]
Food, food, lots of it – at Thanksgiving, Christmas – so why aren’t you eating? This Thanksgiving (and probably the Christmas to come) was (and will be) a reminder. A reminder of what? My eating disorder. Why? Why, you ask? Well, there’s food, yes. Plenty of food involved. And the body can often feel like […]
Recognition is growing that answers for successful treatments for eating disorders are found through listening to patients and their families. Therefore, I hasten to provide details of two research projects at Flinders University, Australia, which offer fresh opportunity for people with experience to share their stories. If you have eating disorder experience, either as […]
It was like receiving a great big slap in the face. Sitting with my friend Lisa in an auditorium surrounded by a bunch of strangers, my mind was wondering, ‘Do they all know about me?’, ‘I wonder if any of them have an eating disorder?’ Instantly, my insecurities set in; I felt like a big neon sign was astride my head, flashing ‘Eating disorder right here, treat carefully’. Listening […]
Today, I pushed another hole in the prison wall that an eating disorder erected in my brain at age 11. That wall effectively disconnected my healthy self from my body until I was 55. Thirteen years on, eating three meals and three snacks a day without guilt, shame and self-loathing is a daily joy. But […]
By Dr. Anthea Fursland Australians with an eating disorder are about to gain greater access to Medicare reimbursed evidence-based treatment. This is an enormous step forward and will benefit many people with eating disorders. A huge amount of work has gone into this change, and we have to thank the National Eating Disorders Collaboration and […]
In the early 1950s, at age 15, Dina was sent thousands of miles from her family to stay with relatives on the other side of Australia, because she was ‘difficult’ and ill. This is Dina’s story: At the time my illness struck, I was in my early teens, living in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), […]