Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are psychological conditions that cause dangerous patterns of unhealthy eating that can be treated with medication or therapy. Anyone can develop an eating disorder, though they most commonly affect women.

Climb Every Mountain–A Metaphor for Eating Disorders?

PUBLISHED 6/25/2010 by

I’m just back from the annual Academy for Eating Disorders conference, this year in beautiful Salzburg in the Austrian Alps. Perhaps that location helps to explain why keynote speaker Kelly Vitousek raised a provocative comparison between eating disorders and extreme mountain climbing. The spark for Vitousek’s talk was a search of eating disorder (ED) websites […]

Are Eating Disorders an “Important” Cause?

PUBLISHED 5/5/2010 by

The other day I was talking on the phone to a friend in Los Angeles, an Episcopal priest who founded and runs a school and daycare center near Skid Row for the children of garment workers. Alice is one of the most inspiring, generous and down-to-earth people I’ve ever met, and her ability to embrace […]

The Pretty Paradox

PUBLISHED 4/14/2010 by

She was trapped in the pretty paradox: how could she address her problems if she wasn’t allowed to have any problems?

Something for Nothing: The Splenda Thief

PUBLISHED 3/30/2010 by

“Something for nothing” is a lie that consumerism loves to perpetuate. And America has fallen for it over and over, not only in the ersatz foods we eat and drink but in “no-cost mortgages,” “zero-financing” credit scams, and now, thanks to reality TV, even zero-talent instant celebrity.

Eating Disorders Are Not “About Control”

PUBLISHED 3/8/2010 by

Of course, eating disorders involve control, but the force that’s in control is the disorder, not the individual. It’s like saying diabetes, or cancer, or tuberculosis is all about control! The illness controls your life, not the other way around. But that’s never what the uninitiated mean when they say EDs are “all about control.”