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.
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’..
Hospitals must treat people with eating disorders with respect
Flaws in our public health system* are creating havoc in the lives of people with eating disorders (EDs). I am a mentor for Shelley**, who is in her 40s, and lives in a country town in Australia. Shelley has diagnoses..
Studying the impact of personality traits in people with eating disorders
From a clinical and research perspective, Eating Disorders (EDs) are interesting, almost unique, in that despite not wanting to have an ED, many people continue to engage in behaviour that can be dangerous and even deadly. More concerning is that..
Writing our way through 2021
I hope you have a new diary ready for 2021. I have three. I chose one, and two are gifts. 2021 is shaping up to be my most prolific diary-writing year yet! I look forward to becoming acquainted with these..
Hanging up the bikini: why I quit fitness competitions
In October 2014, at age 31, I achieved the award that marked the pinnacle of my fitness competition career: the coveted Bikini Athlete Pro Card. Standing onstage in a Hertfordshire theatre, smiling for the winner’s photographs, I appeared the epitome..
How I found identity and freedom by feeding my soul
I am a survivor of childhood physical and emotional abuse, childhood emotional neglect, and anorexia/purging type (severe). I am also a beloved child of God that strayed off the path I believe He set before me. I am 56-years-old and..
June speaks with Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik – Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative
June was delighted to join Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik, principal investigator for the Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI), for a Facebook Live recently. June speaks about her story and experience of anorexia nervosa, and how diary writing can help people..
Mistakes are valuable lessons in eating disorder recovery
I became a champion mistake-maker when healing from my eating disorder (ED). This trial and error period occurred during a complete, internal makeover. I was exploring a new frontier, a whole new set of challenges that would lead me to..