Life After Recovery

Speak Out About Recovery

This just in!  NORMAL in Schools, a non-profit dedicated to education on eating disorders is seeking volunteers to participate in an online educational campaign about eating disorders.  NORMAL has made a valuable educational film called Speaking Out About Eating Disorders which includes interviews with many of the leading researchers and treatment specialists in the field.  Now NORMAL is recruiting individuals in ED recovery (or those recovered) to create videos that share their experiences in battling this illness.  

To participate, individuals in recovery (and/or those recovered, and/or close family members) will submit a short (40 second or so) video about their struggle with eating disorders (or about their family member's struggle, as applicable). The goal is to distribute the videos through social media as a PSA to educate the public about ED.

 NORMAL is asking participants to craft a script (using a simple instruction sheet) that helps them share their truths about battling and/or eventually overcoming this highly-misunderstood disease and what they "wish" society / the world understood about them (versus the myths and judgments that typically pervade our culture). For detailed instructions, please contact Sedef Onder, 212.699.3761.

NORMAL's goals for the educational project include:
-- increasing the awareness of and educate about ED as a serious mental illness
-- raising visibility of its prevalence among young populations of girls and boys
-- encouraging open discussions
-- providing people to whom young people can relate and identify who have struggled with ED and its assorted challenges
-- inciting people to seek help

New listing of treatment providers

I just received a note about a new listing of treatment providers at EatingDisorderHope.com
This looks like a good resource. 
If you or someone you know needs help, you can search providers by state from this page:

Treatment provider listings

Not only does this site offer info about large programs such as McCallum Place, but it will give you a sense of individual eating disorder therapists.
While these are paid ads, and NOT recommendations, I think the information provided here is useful if you are looking for a way to navigate through all the choices.  I know and am a fan of several of the centers and individuals listed.

Note that this site is brand new, and should be growing rapidly over the next year, so if you don't see any listings in your area, check back.

Shop to fight Eating Disorders!

Okay, this is a little strange.  But in the wide wild world of new media, anything is possible.
Amazon sales can benefit the work of the Academy for Eating Disorders, which fosters scientific research, education, and prevention programs.

Amazon will contribute a portion of the purchase price on anything (books, games, clothes, whatever) you buy through these links:

By clicking on the link below, you can shop the ENTIRE Amazon.com site for ALL your holiday gifts! Books, apparel, toys, entertainment, electronics, even groceries – everything you purchase through the site will benefit AED -- and at no extra cost to you. The Academy receives a percentage of every purchase you make through this link -- even though you will not see any direct mention of AED on the page:
http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=acadforeatidi-20&linkCode=sb1&camp=212353&creative=380557

Alternately, to purchase books that have been featured in the AED Forum, you can visit the AED Bookstore at:http://astore.amazon.com/acadforeatidi-20  (From that page, clicking the "Powered by Amazon" link in the top left corner will take you to the Amazon homepage.)

If you're shopping Amazon anyway, why not make the AED part of the package?

Thanks!

Aimee

Staying connected...and independent

This is a bit off the track of eating disorders, but it's very much on the track of family communications that facilitate understanding instead of division...an issue that often seems to go hand in hand with ED.

The Los Angeles Times today published a piece about how my family uses e-mail to stay connected -- and independent. We call our system Hello Today.

"Stress had historically pulled our family apart instead of bringing us together, but Hello Today altered that pattern. Because we now had this routine of checking in on one another, we found it easier to confront problems as they emerged."

Find the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-liu4-2009oct04,0,97946.story

Cheers!
Aimee