I just came back from the Academy of Eating Disorders international conference in Salzburg. To my chagrin, one thing I discovered is that eating disorder treatment professionals around the world can’t agree on eating disorder terminology. They still use different terms to describe the same thing, and it makes discussing eating disorders very confusing.
I have had this exchange a thousand times,
“I’m really depressed.”
“Why, what happened?”
Have you been missing the plot?
Back in 2002, when I first started learning about eating disorders, it was rare for the media to mention genetics. Now it is rare for it not to be mentioned. But how much further are we on this? The idea of a genetic predisposition to eating disorders still causes a range of reactions: from relief to ridicule.
Have you ever been in a stressful situation and made it out alright, but then had a panic attack afterward when everything calmed down? I had a family vacation I was stressing about once. I was worried before we left, but I didn’t have any anxiety on the trip itself, until the drive home when the worst was over. I suddenly and unexpectedly got hit with a panic attack I couldn’t manage. What’s up with that?
Everyone gets buried in email, especially the disorganized, but is there a way to get back on top without abandoning email entirely?
Everyone gets buried in email, especially the disorganized. Get on the wrong list, or have the wrong friend, and you’ll receive so much spam that you’ll swear you’ve been canned in it. But there is a way out without abandoning all electronics and living in a tent in the middle of the Bonneville Flats.
HealthyPlace is known as a mental health site, so when we opened the HealthyPlace Diabetes Center this month, we wondered would anyone really come. Since June 1, over 8,000 people have viewed the content; many of them very interested in our special section on Diabetes and Mental Health, written by award-winning mental health author, Julie Fast.
Last night, I watched Crazy for Love a very bad movie wherein a man, Max, is put into a mental hospital for attempting suicide for the tenth time. When he’s there, he glimpses a very ill, schizophrenic, Grace, whereupon he instantaneously falls in love with her. She too is determined to kill herself. His life’s mission then is to “make her better”. To “make her happy”. Having found his new mission in life, he no longer wants to kill himself.
Well, pin a rose on his nose.
When most people think of anorexia, they think of weight loss. But often the first clue isn’t losing weight, it is a child failing to gain expected weight.
Today is one of those days where if I am asked to do one more thing for someone, I am going to lose it. I am a people-pleaser, which means I have a really hard time saying no. So when I am asked to help out, I am almost always going to reply with a big grin and a “sure thing,” even if I don’t want to.
Today I feel stretched so thin. I feel like I am just not capable to do all of it. But I stress that if I break commitments, then I will make someone mad at me. So, either way, I lose. Stress is there no matter what. What happened to good old laid back Fridays?
This week I did an interview for the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV show. We discussed what it is to have bipolar disorder, the impact, what works and what doesn’t.
Tanya J. Peterson, MS, NCCTanya J. Peterson, MS, NCCTanya J. Peterson, MS, NCCSign up for the HealthyPlace mental health newsletter for latest news, articles, events.
