Dear Diary Blog
Share your story on The Diary Healer
The Diary Healer offers a safe and supportive environment in which to share your story. Sharing your story can help you to develop a sense of belonging and connectedness with self and others. Stories that provide a message of hope in coping with life challenges are especially welcome. Share your story today.
Fictional life story helps self-healing from eating disorder
“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.” Sigmund Freud A series of events inspired me to write A Dangerous Daughter. Firstly, in 2015, I was invited to take part in an international study on eating disorders, the Anorexia Nervosa..
When your child says “I hate you” remember that’s their eating disorder voice
You are a “good enough” parent. Remember this. Twelve years after launching a blog to raise awareness of eating disorders, your stories continue to shine brightly on the dark crevices where the eating disorder hides. Your stories help us to..
This Girl Rising: online self-help eating disorder program fills gap
By Michelle Southern and Jennifer Hamer Two Australian-based women, Michelle and Jennifer, have created an online self-help eating disorder program to help address gaps in accessible and adequate treatment and care. Michelle and Jennifer bring first-hand understanding to the fore..
Interview: Mamamia’s podcast ‘The Quicky’
We thank Mamamia and The Quicky for helping to raise awareness about eating disorders (ED) and in particular, EDs impacting adult women. June was delighted to share her story and the message that recovery is possible at every age. Click here to..
Dying but not sick enough to have a hospital bed
If only an eating disorder (ED) could show up on a scan. What a disgrace our public health sector is in Australia. I say “our” as it could be you, your mother, sister, or friend instead of me. My mother..
Fed Up with Eating Disorder Silence
Pent up in my room, I contemplated the screen. Words failed me, and I felt consumed by an incessant writer’s block. Deprived and malnourished, my stomach ached, and my head was abuzz with a low, cyclical thrum of throbbing that..
Chatbot KIT is helping to improve body image one chat at a time
Our next generation of young people are highly concerned about their body image. In fact, one in three 15-19-year-olds in Australia are “very” or “extremely concerned” (Tiller et al., 2020). Body image concerns are the major risk factor for the..
What not to say to someone with an eating disorder
“You are looking well today.” My aunt’s words became frozen in time. As a 13-year-old with anorexia nervosa, my brain sprang to high alert. Thoughts raged: “I’m fat. I look horrible. I must eat less.” Recovery roared in reverse. That..
Diary writing reveals eating disorder stigma and ignorance
Too often, our words and behaviours become lost in translation and the eating disorder (ED) wins every time. Our diary provides a place to record our truth when no-one will listen. The Hidden Face of Anorexia … This illness has..
The perfect body illusion
Do you wish to look like the girl in the magazine? I will let you in on a secret… the girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like that. I know: I have been that girl. Representations of the ‘perfect’..