Sunday, April 8, 2012
“What I know is this: I chose recovery. It was a conscious decision, and not an easy one. That’s the common denominator among people I know who have recovered: they chose recovery, and they worked like hell for it, and they didn’t give up. Recovery isn’t easy, at first. It takes time. It takes more work, sometimes, than you think you’re willing to do. But it is worth every hard day, every tear, every terrified moment. It’s worth it, because the trade-off is this: you let go of your eating disorder, and you get back your life.” Marya Hornbacher (via a-recovered-life)

(Source: livebreathegrow)
Posted at 1:25 PM 770 notes Reblogged from reachingforrecovery Tags: recovery
“No-one can force you to do anything. You choose. You always choose. You can choose not to weigh yourself; you can choose to have a dash of milk in your coffee; you can choose to begin that furtive stumble towards the light. Conversely, you can choose to remain behind. You can choose to cower. You can choose to starve, binge, abuse yourself. It is a compulsion, yes, but it is a compulsion that can be fixed. Patched up. Knitted anew into a healthier form.” Lucy Howard-Taylor in Biting Anorexia (via a-recovered-life)

(Source: lightweightperfection)
Posted at 1:24 PM 341 notes Reblogged from reachingforrecovery Tags: recovery anorexia
Sunday, February 12, 2012
“What I know is this: I chose recovery. It was a conscious decision, and not an easy one. That’s the common denominator among people I know who have recovered: they chose recovery, and they worked like hell for it, and they didn’t give up. Recovery isn’t easy, at first. It takes time. It takes more work, sometimes, than you think you’re willing to do. But it is worth every hard day, every tear, every terrified moment. It’s worth it, because the trade-off is this: you let go of your eating disorder, and you get back your life.” Marya Hornbacher (via nix-pixiestix)

(Source: replenished-essence)
Posted at 12:03 PM 218 notes Reblogged from insight-inspiration Tags: words marya recovery
Sunday, January 29, 2012
“The first key [to recovery] is hope, motivation and patience. You need to know you can get there, that you can be recovered, that it takes a long time. And you need to continually reevaluate your motivation. Other keys: finding meaning and purpose. Conscious eating — listening to your body, getting awareness of hunger and fullness back in your life. Learning how to challenge the critical eating-disordered voice inside yourself and strengthening your healthy core self. Exploring with someone you trust what’s fueling your eating disorder. Really looking for the underlying issues, so you don’t get rid of your symptom only to have it pop up again.” Carolyn Costin (via shetakesflight)
Posted at 4:40 AM 63 notes Reblogged from the-healing-nest Tags: words treatment recovery eating disorders
Monday, January 9, 2012

The Starving Brain

pro-recovery:

(Due to the length of this article, click read more to view it in its entirety.)

Why not me? Why not Susan? Why Jeannie?

We all grew up with cultural messages suggesting thinness equals beauty and dieting is good for you. As a skinny eighth grader, I joined my friends in throwing away the school lunch every day and eating an 8-oz. container of yogurt instead.When she was a freshman, my friend Susan joined her college sorority sisters in eating meals and then going en-masse to the bathroom to throw them up. Neither of us emerged with an eating disorder.

Jeannie was a high school classmate of mine with a pretty face, an average build and a sweet personality. Seeing her on the bus the summer after my first year in college, I recognized only her sunken face. Her body was skeletal, emaciated; I’d never seen anything like it except in photos of Holocaust victims or Biafra refugees. I couldn’t help blurting out, “What happened?”

“I’ve been sick,” she said quietly. Later I found out she had anorexia.

Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness characterized by intense fear of gaining weight or being fat, severe restriction of calories often leading to refusal to eat, extreme weight loss and distorted body image. It is most commonly diagnosed in adolescence, but can arise at any life stage.

About 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States currently battle anorexia, according to the Seattle-based National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and Harvard Medical School, and between 5 and 20 percent of people who suffer from anorexia will die from it, most commonly from heart failure or suicide. This represents the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders.

At present, depending on who you ask, recovery rates range from 25 to 70 percent.

Fortunately, over the past 10 years the understanding of the causes of anorexia and other eating disorders has undergone a sea change, and this is leading to improved forms of treatments and hopefully better odds for recovery.

Read More

Posted at 10:09 PM 17 notes Reblogged from pro-recovery Tags: words anorexia recovery