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.
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..
The Role of Faith in Recovery: A Personal Journey
Theodicy. The word flashed across my mind as I sat motionless among my fellow clients at my first eating disorder treatment center. Three years prior, I had written my final college essay on this term, seeking to answer the universal..
How motherhood inspired this dancer to heal from her eating disorder
“I HAD an eating disorder.” This sentence has left my mouth frequently over the past two decades. I was 19-years-old when diagnosed with an eating disorder (ED). At the time, I had no idea that cutting out refined sugar and..
Is gaining weight the worst outcome for me during a global pandemic?
I have pondered this question repeatedly for the past few months. Sometimes it has kept me awake at night, because what if ‘it’ happens while I am not paying attention? What if the weight creeps in unannounced and I can’t..