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 can I do?’ the COVID-19 pandemic
Our world is facing a health challenge unprecedented in most of our lifetimes. COVID-19, which developed late last year in China, is now reaching all corners of the world with far reaching impact, and scientists and researchers are scrambling to..
Keep Quiet and Carry On: Life with PCOS
Eating disorder symptoms can vary, and sometimes they can be symptoms of other illnesses – read Min Dean’s courageous story… It’s 1995 and 14-year-old me cannot take the acne anymore. I’ve tried all the usual teenage skincare routines, but nothing’s..
Picturing a world without my eating disorder
Like most things in life, there are many types of photography. Landscape, portrait, wildlife, aerial, macro, abstract, the list goes on. Each form of photography requires a slightly different set of knowledge and skillsets, for example, the way you set..
Protecting Our Kids from Diet Culture
From the moment we’re born, we are exposed to this constant idea that thin is good, and fat is bad. In an increasingly health conscious society, we’re pounded with messages about the health dangers of the “obesity epidemic”, and simultaneously..
Recovery IS Possible Across the Lifespan
Eating disorders don’t only affect children and teenagers. They affect people across their lifespan. If you are an adult experiencing eating disorder symptoms, the good news is that recovery is possible. For 44 years, from age 11 to 55, an..
An eating disorder relapse in mid-life is an opportunity for self-growth
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...
When disaster re-ignites past trauma, reach out
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..
Being true to yourself and others through writing
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..
Christmas message from The Diary Healer
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..
Poetry explores Famine in the Family through an eating disorder lens
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?..