Health is Wealth

It is thought that there may be a strong link between anorexia nervosa or other EDs and OCD. This comes from evidence that shows that many people with ED also suffer from OCD, such as hand washing, rituals, etc. For those of you who do not know, OCD is obsessive-compulsion disorder. Obsessions are things always on your mind, and a compulsion is something that you do to relieve that obsession. For example, hand washing: someone is scared of germs so they wash their hands so ofte  to the extent that their hands are dry and worn out. OCD is a serious illness, not just a simple problem. The idea that ED and OCD are related comes from the evidence that people with ED become very rigid. They only eat certain foods, or do not eat at all. Others with ED actually have severe OCD. Now, I do not (and never have had) OCD, but I like this model from a research paper. It models that OCD and ED can be related because of the perfecionist thoughts. For example, my thought when sick was 'I need to...

WOW! One of my posts has been published yet again on NEDIC. http://www.nedic.ca/blog/?p=732#comments This post is about not blaming the patient. We've talked about this before on this blog, and we noted how blaming the patient is unfair and unjust. It harms our society even more by making us think that people with mental illnesses are to blame for their troubles. What's more, this belief incorrectly identfies patients as being problematic. Instead, I believe that we need to realize that mental illnesses are real, serious, and that they are the cause of many factors. Blaming patients never helps, and with mental illnesses, this discourages victims frm getting help. We should, instead, care for these people and help them see that although they may have a mental illness (or even any problem at all!), they are not be to blamed. In addition, it is against the law to discriminate against anyone with any condiiton - whether that be a mental illness, a physical health condition, cert...

One year ago on June 21, I was discharged from the hospital. I remember being thrilled that I was leaving (finally!), but I was also scared. What would happen next? Would my life actually return to normal again? My parents were scared that I would not do well outside the hospital, so they were worried that I would get sick again. And they had a right to feel this way, of course. I was not so sure myself if recovery would be possible. I got out of the hospital with a plan: I was going to do well. But this was easier said than done. Eating was still very challening. I was on the waiting list for an inpatient ED progra,m, which I was not thrilled about. The first month at home was challening. It was full of fights with my parents about how much food was enough, how much I should weigh, who would weigh me, etc. It was not fun, to say the least. I was still in a phase where I did not really know what I had to do for my body. Then, a month later, I got called into the inpatient program. I ...

Happy Father's Day to everyone out there who is a father, brother, husband, fiance, friend, granfather, uncle, etc! This is the day when we celebrate YOU! (I know this is a bit late, but still!) I want to take this day to say a special message to my own father. Dad, you are amazing. I love you so much. You are always by my side and you support me no matter what. You have always believed in me and you never let anyone hurt or discouarge me. You always encouarge me to follow my dreams and to go for what I want. You are a strong man - inside and out. Your love for us is amazing and your ability to see the positive in every situation is admirable. You were always by my side when I was ill in the ICU, making sure that I was taken care of. As an adult, you inspire me to learn all that I can and to do my best. You have never pushed me to do anything, and you always support us. You work so hard for all of us and you have shown me that no one has the right to tell me that I am not good en...

One of the pirests in my church community has an amazing and inspirational blog. His name is Fr. Anthony Messeh - I encourage everyone to read it. It is a spiriitual blog, but it certainly does not speak to those who are Christian only. His words and thoughts are very clear, touching, and informational. You can find my post, as well as his blog, here: http://franthony.com/2013/06/with-god-all-things-are-possible/ . He recetnly posted saying that he was going to start accepting guest posts every Friday, so my sister approach me and told me to try out for it. With her encouargment, I decided to. I wrote a piece about my journey with ED last year in the ICU and how my family and friends never left my side. Writing this reminded me of how wonderful God is, and how supportive my community was. But, to be honest, I never thought that Fr. Anthony would get back to me and approve it. I felt that my writing was not good - that it was not worthy to be posted on someone else's website. Besi...

I was reading the news the other day, when I came across this: http://ca.m.yahoo.com/w/ygo-frontpage/lp/story/ca/1581913/coke.bp%3B_ylt=Ag8e0OWR4SXJdBWFYPDgrW.x.tw4%3B_ylu=X3oDMTF1MDJsOTlzBGNwb3MDMjIEY3NlYwNtb2JpbGUtdGQEaW50bANjYQRwa2cDaWQtMTU4MTkxMwRwb3MDMjIEc2xrA2ltYWdl?ref_w=frontdoors&view=today&.intl=ca&.lang=en-ca&.tsrc=yahoo Basically, this story is about a young lady who decided that it would be interesting and somewhat helpful if she wore a corset (day and night) for three years. As a result, her waistline has become VERY tiny, to an unhealthy state. She states that now it is like an addiction - that she cannot simply stop wearing it because she is scared of becoming fat. On top of that, she says that she is happier now that she is so small, becaue she feels beautiful and in control. Are the red lights flashing in your head by now? They were in mine! Does this not sound like a major problem, possibly ED? I found this sad, to be honest. First, why on earth ...

Many people have asked me similar questions: 'how can you openly speak about your ED?' or 'aren't you scared that people will know about you having ED and judge you'.' Others ask, 'what if people do not give you a job because of your history with ED?'. So, I will start answering them! 1) I can speak openly about ED because I am not ashamed of it. I no longer am sick and am working my way through a solid recovery. I speak about it because so many others are scared to do so. EDs, like other mental illnesses, have so much stigma attached to them. And this should not be the case. Any illness is not someone's fault. It bothers me when people are scared to speak about mental illnesses because this reflects all the sterotypical stigma associated with them. I am frustrated with the lack of understanding and empathy that people have towards illnesses. Moreover, many people do not know about ED. They know that anorexia is, for example, but they do not know h...

A few people have asked me to write about self-harm, so I'm going to take a stab (haha, get the pun...okay, but seriously. This is a serious topic) at it. I have never self-harmed, but I think I can really relate to it because of my experiences wtith ED. Please let me know if this post makes sense and if it helps. Self-harm is a serious problem. Many people think that those who self-harm have serious, major issues. Whty would you purposely hurt yourself? Well, there ia lot going in with people who self-harm. I'll start with an ED perspective. Why would I want to purposely starve myself? Didn't I KNOW that not eating would eventually hurt me and kill me? OF COURSE I DID. But I could not stop restricting. It had become like a habit, similar to an addiction. Perhaps I knew that I was hurting my body, but restricting became something that somehow made things easier for me. Let me explain... When I felt bad, I just ate less. If I was having a bad day and nothing was going ri...

You have porbably heard that the more you do something, the more it becomes a habit. People say different things - some say it takes 21 days (3 weeks), some say a few months, and others say a year. However long it takes, it is well-known that things become a habit if you do them more often. I want to talk about this 'habit-forming' process in terms of thinking and mood, but that is for another post. What this post will talk about is how ED and exposure therapy (or habits) are related. When I was sick, it was a habit not to eat. At first, this was really hard. I was hungry all the time and my stomach hurt so much. But each day, it got 'easier'. I became less hungry and I stopped thinking about the food that I so desperately missed. Thus, restricting became a habit, and so did my excuses for not eating. 'I am not hungry', 'I ate already', 'I don't like that food', etc. Strangely enough, these are the same phrases that most people with ED sa...