MOM VS. Ed (Big Bad Eating Disorder)

 In less than 70 hours, our girl will be home! She has come so far - worked so hard - and we just can't wait! For the next few weeks she will be attending intensive outpatient treatment 5 days a week for 6 hours a day - but she'll be home every night and able to engage in things she loves - spending time with friends and soccer. (School isn't far behind!) If you are like me, you worry about saying the wrong thing to her/us. Don't worry about it! We know it is a transition and transitions take time. To help you out, here are a few tips that might be useful. 1) Please avoid discussing weight, shape, or diets. We'd ask you not to make comments on looks, instead make non-appearance related compliments.  Here are a few examples: Your smile lights up the room - I am so happy to see that smile. You are a positive role model - your hard work is inspirational. I enjoy spending time with you  - I am so happy you are healthy and home. Your kindness is infectious. You are motiv...

 Our girl has been in-patient 4 weeks. (5 weeks if you include the prep week; which was equally hard) We're all exhausted. I haven't slept well in 35 days - so ignore the bags under my  eyes if we happen to run into each other.😉 Often times we are back and forth to the clinic, a 40 minute drive one way, multiple times a day... AND... to see Ed dying and the light in our girls eyes come back I'd do it all over again. TWICE. She's healthy. She's strong. She has her own opinion. Her voice is louder than Ed's. I often think of Ed as an abusive husband, telling her she is worthless without him. She's kicking him to the curb and filling the place Ed used to live with God and self-love. It's not easy. I watch her struggle to eat. She's uncomfortable....even in pain, but she does it anyway because she knows it's worth the fight.  She is worth the fight.  It almost feels like a rebirth. I look at her with the same pride and joy I did the day she was born...

Happy New Year! The past few weeks have been full of emotion; we are in the thick of this fight…and we are now seeing light. We’re “heads down” and plowing through – more stable than we have been and we are seeing some beautiful, positive change. I believe in 2024! Since life feels a bit “clinical” right now, I thought it would be fitting to share a few ED statistics. We MUST change the way we approach mental illness. 75% of people with ED’s don’t seek professional help – the majority of them feel there is stigma attached to it, and/or they should be able to “kick it on their own” if they just roll up their sleeves. Can you heal a broken arm through will power? How about diabetes? Even the thought itself is absurd. We wouldn’t expect someone to try. Why have we made those with eating disorders feel like they should be ashamed or weak for because they struggle? The health of our world insists that we have this discussion and have it often. Did you know? Every 60 minutes at least...