July

Have you ever wanted to do something to spread eating disorder recovery, but just don’t know what? How about starting small with a NEDA Walk?  A NEDA walk is in affiliation with The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). NEDA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders. They campaign for prevention, improved access to quality treatment, and increased research funding to better understand and treat eating disorders. Yeah NEDA!

A NEDA walk is coming to Southern California on:

 Sunday, September 16, 2012!

Walk Venue: Ronald Reagan Sports Park

Walk Location: 42569 Margarita Road, Temecula, CA 92591

Check In Time: 8:15AM

Walk Start Time: 9AM Walk End Time: 11AM

Walk Fundraising Goal: $5,000\

Contact: Andree Grey

Email: amgrey@verizon.net

This is a great opportunity for our own clients as well as other eating disorder clients and rehabs to get involved with stopping this disease from taking more lives. Get more details about the Southern California NEDA Walk HERE.

Would you start a NEDA Walk?

What are some other ideas you have for spreading eating disorder awareness?

Join The Conversation Below!

Seventeen magazine - August 2012

"We vow to ... never change girls' body or face shapes. (Never have, never will)," Says Seventeen magazine. This is in regards to the "Body Peace Treaty" that is featured in the August 2012 edition.

This treaty was created after a push led by a Maine 14-year-old to combat the practice of altering pictures and picking models whose appearance give teens an unrealistic perspective on what is attractive and trigger eating disorders. 

The treaty and accompanying note by editor-in-chief Ann Shoket promise that Seventeen will "celebrate every kind of beauty" and feature "real girls and models who are healthy," while vouching that the magazine always has done just that.

However, more than 84,000 people who signed a Change.org petition, started by teenager Julia Bluhm, clearly believed Seventeen and other publications didn't always present the full, human truth in their magazine images.

The petition said, "Those 'pretty women' that we see in magazines are fake." The petition went on to request one unaltered, real , photo spread per month." "They're often Photo shopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life."

In addition to going public in its commitment, Seventeen states in its latest edition it is partnering with the National Eating Disorders Association and the Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls.

What do you think about the Body Peace Treaty? 

Do you think it will help prevent eating disorders? 

Join the conversation below! 

Via etsy.com

The craving to purge his someone suffering from bulimia the same way you may feel when you badly need to urinate. If you can imagine a time when the discomfort of having to relieve yourself was so consuming you couldn’t think of anything else, this is similar if not worse. Resisting the urge to purge when you have an eating disorder is like resisting an urge to use drugs for a drug addict. It can feel intensely painful despite knowing that such resistance would ultimately be better down the road. New research analyzes the similarities between bulimia and drug addiction.

The research done by Tufts Medical School and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmocology, highlights many similarities in the behavioral experience of bulimia and drug addiction. For example, both food and drug  are experienced as cravings that often become associated with certain places or situations (and the brain may become wired to associate cravings with certain emotions). People experience positive shift in moods when eating and using drugs which provides this behavior to continue. They also describe feeling a loss of control in the moments before or during binging/purging and using.

The authors explain how tolerance usually associated with drug addiction can also be seen in bulimia. As compared to when they first developed bulimia, people describe needing to eat larger quantities of food later on to get the same emotional/physical effect. The researchers speculate that there may also be a similar neurological pattern of withdrawal in bulimia and drug addiction. In fact, many people with bulimia report signs of drug withdrawal when they try to abstain from binge eating including increased anxiety, disturbed sleep, and strong cravings.

Given all these behavioral similarities, it seems likely that there are biological similarities between bulimia and drug addiction. Indeed, a new study held at Columbia University that will be published next month suggests that people with bulimia have similar dopamine abnormalities in their brain as people suffering from cocaine and alcohol addiction. A few other studies have looked at how the brain reacts to cravings - similar parts of the brain were activated in people with bulimia and drug addiction as they craved food and drugs, respectively. 

It’s no surprise that many people with bulimia have also suffered from drug addiction. Considering bulimia as a form of “food addiction” may help others better understand how paralyzing the illness can feel.

Have you or someone you know struggled with bulimia and alcohol addiction?

 

We’re you able to see how the cravings were similar?

 

Join the conversation below!