Eating Disorders Recovery Blog

At the Victorian House we use the 12 Steps used in Alcoholics Anonymous for Eating Disorder Recovery. The Victorian women attend Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous Meetings and Overeaters Anonymous Meetings, where the 12 Steps are practiced and taught. Everyone on staff at the Victorian understands and implements the 12 Steps with clients as well. But, do the 12 Steps really work for Eating Disorders?


To answer that question we have to be on the same level of understanding. As trained professionals who treat Eating Disorders we treat it as a disease, like diabetes or a heart condition. If someone is diagnosed with diabetes they will have to treat it for the rest of their life. We see Eating Disorders in the same way, our client has a disease that they will have for the rest of their life, it’s our job to teach them how to cope and care for themselves. Like someone with diabetes who takes insulin daily, people with Eating Disorders have to work on their recovery, daily. Because Eating Disorders are a disease of the mind, a 12 Step program works well because the program is structured under mental, physical and spiritual recovery. Participants are encouraged to be held accountable to a sponsor, share their struggles and triumphs in a group format, journal and reflect on their actions. A 12 Step program is a lifestyle of living opposite of addiction. The biggest difference is the amount of accountability the members hold each other to.

But, lets say (like many women who come into the Victorian house very sick and resistant say) that “12 Step just isn’t for me. I can do recovery on my own with a therapist.” Would that work just as well?

As much as I would love to say that, “There are different strokes for different folks” I have been around the 12 Step rooms for Eating Disorders for quite some time now and I have repeatedly found handfulls of women who come in every week sharing stories like this:
“I went into treatment. I had 3 years of recovery…I thought I didn’t need a 12 step group…..I didn’t throw up for 3 whole years….Then I started studying for my nursing exams and POW…My bulimia was back.”

Or:

“I had 5 years of recovery. I worked with a therapist and dietician monthly. I was so sure I would never binge again that I would have given you my right arm. I didn’t think I needed meetings…then BANG out of nowhere I became Anorexic all of the sudden…I thought after 5 years I was done with all of this nonsense!”

This repeating tape leads me to believe that there really is something that works in the 12 Step programs. The people who maintain their attendance in 12 Step meetings more often than not maintain their abstinence and grow stronger against their Eating Disorder.
The bottom line is recovery from an Eating Disorder is a lifelong process. You don’t put someone in rehab for 9 months and expect them to walk out a recovered person without a trace of Eating Disorder on them. I like to refer to an Eating Disorder as cancer…it is always in remission. You never know when it’s going to strike back again. I believe one is better off maintaining a lifestyle of recovery in a 12 Step program so they are stronger to battle ED when he comes knocking again.

Whether or not you choose to participate in a 12 Step group or work with a therapist and dietician for the rest of your life, recovery is inevitably a life long process. The Victorian believes that the road to recovery is a process full of milestones and failures, there is something to learn from every experience good and bad. If you’re struggling to find what works for you I encourage you to listen to the voice inside you and always BE TRUE TO YOURSELF.
Love,
Irvina

Labels: Anorexia information, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating, Eating Disorder Help, Eating disorder recovery, Rehab for Eating Disorders

This Sunday night we will be hosting
Mia Eadington, MA MFT
Topic: Eating Disorders and our Relationships with our Significant Others
The Victorian
505 29th Street
Newport Beach, CA 92661
7pm to 8pm

Please see Mia's site for more info on her practice:
http://www.lifeisagamelc.com/

People with Eating Disorders often have problems in relationships. Whether it be too little boundaries, too many or just the inability to connect. Mia will be discussing all topics in the spectrum. Come and join us for this open discussion. I never leave a Victorian Meeting not feeling fresh and rejuvenated.

Have a great weekend!

Irvina

Labels: Anorexia, Bulimia, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating, Eating Disorder Rehab, Eating Disorder Therapy

What really gets my blood boiling is how sneaky Eating Disorders are. I can best describe them as the "Perfect Murder" Take Brittany Murphy and Michael Jackson for instance...both talented individuals in their field of acting and music. The Eating Disorder makes its sneaky "entrance" or what we call in the field "is triggerered" with the demands to stay beatiful and attractive.

After the sneaky murderer is present it corners it's victim with threats of making them fat if they don't do exactly what it says and starve. In the field we call this the "presence" of the Eating Disorder voice.

In an effort to escape from the murderer, the Eating Disorder victim turns to drugs and alcohol to at least give themselves some short escape from the miserable existence they have found themselves in. This escape is what we call "cross addicition" the Eating Disorder victim shuts the ED voice off with other substances. In the process there is still no long term reprieve from the  Eating Disorder so they increase their use of alcohol and drugs.

After time the threshold for this pain becomes so shallow that the Eating Disorder victim takes as much drugs and alcohol that they possibly can that allows them to still survive. This is where the Eating Disorder takes the victim out and kills them. Using an overdose on drugs is the easiest way to kill it's victim because it leaves the Eating Disorder blamelsess. When  the coroner comes and analyzes the body they find the cause of death to be a "heart attack" or a "seizure" but, they never claim that the root was the murdering Eating Disorder because the Eating Disorder is too smart for that. All along it plotted to get its vicitm into this drug addiction, fully knowing that it could get off scotch free for the murder and go off and attack someone else in the same way. Eating Disorders are truly genius, murdering, psychopaths that are the best at what they do.

I came up with this "Perfect Murder" theory after I repeatedly saw celebrities die and hear so many news broadcasters tell the public, "Britney Murphy died of Cardiac Arrest" "Michael Jackson's heart stopped." "It was an overdose" or "It was just a freak accident." Having worked in the field it doesn't take a genius to know that these two individuals suffered from Eating Disorders. Just looking at their weight at the time of their deaths shows that their Body Mass Index was well below even a thin healthy weight. As well as the stories and speculation around each ones body image. Michael Jackson with the constant plasitc surgery and Britney Murphy with rapid weight loss show evidence that each one was unhappy with their appearance.

I write this article today just to simply get the truth out and stop all the "Hush, Hush." Eating Disorders thrive on secrets. The more we expose this merciless murderer the closer we are to catching him!

Love,

Irvina

Labels: Anorexia is deadly, Anorexic Britney Murphy, Anorexic Michael Jackson, Bulimia treatment, Celebrities with Eating Disorders, Compulsive Overeating Treatment, Eating Disorder Treatment

The time has come again! Another amazing therapist in the Eating Disorder field will be faciliting a meeting at The Victorian House this Sunday!
Chandra Chalkin will be discussing the Psychology of Women and doing some Movement Therapy. To learn more about Chandra Chalkin and her services visit her website here. Otherwise I look forward to seeing your beautiful self:
Sunday, March 28th
7pm - 8pm
The Victorian 505 29th Street
Newport Beach, CA 92663

Ciao Bellas!
 Irvina

Labels: Anorexia information, Anorexia rehab, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating Treatment, Eating Disorder Meetings in Newport Beach, Eating Disorder Treatment

This week the Clinical Director of The Victorian, Dr. Michele Lob sent me a poem written by one of the current clients living at The Victorian, an Eating Disorder Rehab in Newport Beach. She said the client would like the opportunity to share her poem with others who might be currently in the clutches of "ED". The following poem is her reality, painful and graphic. For me the most poignant thing about this poem is knowing the girl who wrote it....if you met her you would see a gorgeous, smart, witty, funny, creative, intelligent and caring girl. Besides her svelte appearance one would never have an inkling of the nightmare that lives inside her mind, like many women with Eating Disorders she masks it well. I wonder how many more women there are out there masking their pain? I wonder how many women you know? - Irvina



ED's Curse
By: Victorian Client, March 2010




So, you want to be skinny?


Well, you risk running into me.


My initials are E.D.


Everything is fine you see.


You tell yourself: "I just want to look like the girls on T.V"


You will start by cutting out food here and there.


One day the hunger, you won't be able to bear.


You will eat your kitchen away and what luck.....


you can throw your food up.


You make up excuses as to why you have gotten deathly thin.


You start to tell yourself I'll never throw up again.


But the second you feel pain, misery, and sorrow,


You through up again to feel empty and hollow.


I'm now your crutch, your release!


Do you think your mind will be at peace?


Well, not with me in your head,


My self-loathing thoughts will make you wish you were dead.


You're tired of throwing up stomach acid and blood,


You're tired of fainting everytime you get up,


Your teeth are rotting and you bones are thin and weak


You search for a hand to help you out of this mess


Until then, it's E.D. who has control of your stress!!!

Labels: Anorexia treatment, Bulimia treatment, compulsive overeating help, Eating Disorder Poem, Eating disorder recovery, Rehab in newport beach, writing on Eating Disorders

A friend of mine emailed me recently in regards to an article he read about Eating Disorders on DiscoveryNews.com The article discusses the misunderstanding that Eating Disorders root from the media images of emaciated models. R.A. Botta, who is the writer of the 1999 study, “Television Images and Adolescent Girls’ Body Image Disturbance” states that the media doesn’t make one Anorexic. Anorexia is a psychological disorder that is found to be a genetic disposition from birth.

The reason I bring this up is I think it’s quite poignant that my friend and others would be surprised to hear that Anorexia and other Eating Disorders are not rooted from our medias expectations on the human figure, but really are psychological. What bothers me is that I have found people outside of the Eating Disorder field to refer to Eating Disorders as a “phase” or “vanity” and “self absorption.” Those statements themselves are myths.

Eating Disorders are intricate and deep rooted Psychological disorders. Anyone who has worked in the field or has experienced an Eating Disorder themselves can attest to that.

I think the best way to describe it is the difference between an Anorexic and woman who diets is that the Anorexic has no threshold with dieting and starving. Women who are not Anorexic will diet, but then get hungry, blow their diet and just eat. An anorexic will keep going even after she is told how ill she is, how brittle her bones are and how close she is to a heart attack….she has no self-preservation...which makes it a mental illness.

I remember this study that polled 10,000 women about body image and dieting. They asked the women "If I gave you a pill that guaranteed you would be skinny, but taking the pill had a side affect of you possibly dying would you take it?"...10% of those women said, "Yes." That 10% is the group of Anorexics/Bulimic/Eating Disordered women. Willing to die to be thin is an illness.

If you still aren’t convinced take a read at the article from DicoveryNews.com yourself by clicking here. Education is the key to destroying these myths that block the women who are truly sick with this disease from getting help while they wait for this “phase” to pass and end up dying. Blog soon! Irvina

Labels: Anorexia rehab, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating, Eating Disorder, eating disorder myths, Rehab for Eating Disorders

A wider understanding of Eating Disorders has sky rocketed in recent years. Much of the credit goes to organizations like http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ They sponsor advertisements in magazines for recovery, they offer support for Eating Disorder suffererers and their parents AND they host the National Eating Disoarder Awareness week each Spring! Heck Yeah!

 This year all 50 of the United States and over 20 different countries came together and hosted speaking panels from Eating Disorder survivors, Fundraisers for treatment, Awareness booths on college campuses and Candle Light Vigils for those we have lost from this disease. Check out the pictures from the site by clicking here. It is truly inspiring to see people rallying together to work for change for all women! xoxo Irvina

Labels: Anorexia rehab, Bulimia treatment, compulsive overeating help, Eating Disorder Blog, Eating disorder recovery, Eating Disorder Rehab, Eating Disorder Treatment

Sunday nights are my favorites at The Victorian...where else can you meet up with amazing women, do a book study and/or get group therapy from a professional in the field of Eating Disorders? Hello...Jackpot! And the jackpot it is this weekend cause we are having the lovely Dr. Roxanee Cherry PhD coming to do Guided Meditation and Art Therapy with our women, Alumni, friends and friends of friends-sisters-baristas- dog-sitter! Our motto is "The more the women IN- the more the Eating Disorder - OUT!" So mark your calendar:

Meditation and Art Therapy at
The Victorian
505 29th Street
Newport Beach, CA 92660
7pm to 8pm

*To learn more about Dr.Cherry and her practice please click here.
Otherwise...see you on Sunday!

xoxo
Irvina

Labels: Anorexia rehab, Art Therapy for Eating Disorders, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating Treatment, Eating Disorder Blog, Eating Disorder Treatment, Meditation for Eating Disorders

Here’s a look at what Anorexic days look like…waking up to hunger pains which are numbed with appetite suppressants…. The ritual weighing in “How fat I am” happens right out of bed and periodically through out the day. Then there is a spin class at 5am followed by pinching her belly and arms after class to see how much more fat is still there…. Eating half an apple to calm the hunger and drinking 2 Venti Coffees with Splenda to fill up the stomach and give the appearance of energy. More complicated than dodging hunger pains is dodging “People”. They can be an obstacle with their invitations for lunch and offering a slice of a co –workers birthday cake…they just get in the way! For lunch she eats half a power bar for energy….making sure no one will see her eat it thinking that they will think shes “fat” for eating it. The rest of the day, she will research diets, calculate the calories in everything she has eaten since breakfast and order a 21 day detox program on –line…And that’s all before noon.

But, this Anorexic existence can only last for so long, until, the house of cards comes crashing down. Within the Eating Disorder recovery community we call this “The flip of the coin” where the Anorexic gets so nutrient deprived that she has lets say just one bite of ice cream….all of the sudden out of no where the full time Anorexic does a 180 and now instead of constantly focusing on staying away from food, she is now focused on getting as much food as she can and starts bingeing. Cyclically this can lead to purging behaviors like bulimia and laxatives. Like Alcoholism, Eating Disorders are progressive in nature. Try and think of the Alcoholic who drank all weekend, then just at night, then all week, then it lead to prescription pills and then to cocaine. Now, this person isn't just an embarassing "bar drunk" she's an Alcholic and a drug addict. But, it didn’t happen over night, it was progressive.

What many Anorexics and their parents don’t understand is how the behaviors of different eating disorders feed off of each other. To re-cap: Anorexia causes binging and compulsive overeating which then turns into purging. Now, just because a woman binges doesn’t mean that her “Anorexic phase” is over. Her binging will cause her to gain weight and then her Anorexic flag will go up and she starves again. The starving leads again to binging which then leads to purging and of course shame which takes us back to square one of the Anorexic thinking, “I’m not good enough. I don’t deserve to eat.” As well, now this woman isn’t just working full-time as an Anorexic, but she is now a slave for 3 eating disorders…Anorexia, Binging/Compulsive Overeating and Bulimia all compiled are more time consuming and mentally draining than you could ever imagine.

I know so many women who wish someone would have offered them help at the anorexic stage. In my own words I have said, “had someone told me how painful Compulsive Overeating was, I would have eaten those damn carbs as an Anorexic.” If you or someone you know has Anorexia, believe me, recovery is the hardest thing to do, but RECOVERY gets easier….ANOREXIA only gets worse and only lasts so long, until it turns into another Eating Disorder or death.

Xoxo Irvina

Labels: Anorexia rehab, Bulimia treatment, Compulsive Overeating Treatment, Eating Disorder Treatment, Rehab for Eating Disorders, Rehabs for Eating Disorders

Just this past week The Victorian Recovery Rocks – Alumni Group had, Lindsay Elliot PsYD, MFT come and be a guest speaker at our Sunday night meeting here at the Victorian House. Dr.Elliot chose to speak to the women about staying present and how that affects their recovery. She started by point blank asking the woman, “Who doesn’t want to be here?” Three raised their hands, Dr.Elliott then spoke to each one and asked them, “What would you rather be doing?” she then went on to ask them, “How does wanting to be somewhere else affect what you are doing now?” The point of this exercise was to have those women observe their thoughts of feelings.


This detachment from their feelings makes it easier to engage in harmful eating disorder behaviors because they have no thought connection to the binging and starving. They think, I want to be thin…don’t eat…exercise…don’t eat…exercise…” They never get the opportunity to pause and say, “Hey what is going on in this moment in my life. WHY do I want to be thin?” Eventually clients find that the lack of food or excess means something greater than their feeling at the moment.

After living in the NOW is used daily to combat eating disorder thoughts in can also be used to help clients discover who they really are. Many clients come in to Eating Disorder treatment and discover that they are a completely different person than they thought they were. Sometimes they have a new favorite color or favorite band, some even dabble with the thought of a new occupation. It’s the act of being still, listening to their inner dialogue that they are able to discover themselves and heal.

Staying in the NOW allows an Eating Disorder patient to be mindful of her feelings. To center herself and find what kind of role she want to play in the world she lives in.

xoxo Irvina

Labels: Anorexia rehab, Bulimia treatment, compulsive overeating help, Eating Disorder Help, Eating Disorder Treatment