Why She Feels Fat by Johanna Marie McShane

the velveteen rabbit

I'm hoping you guys have read the classic book, The Velveteen Rabbit.

falling together not falling apart

Does that sound weird? The idea that we could "fall together?"

sassiness and recovery

Since Courtney used the word "sassy" in her comment, let me take this opportunity to say that as I see it, some sassiness, along with some grumpiness, confusion, complaining, stomping around the room, silliness, fits of uncontrollable laughter, fits of uncontrollable crying... all of this and more has a place in the process of recovery.

You guys work so hard on yourselves, and when we work that hard we sometimes do feel like complaining or being sassy or grumbling about feeling like giving up or... or lots of things. All of that is normal as far as I'm concerned. As long as it's a part of working on ourselves- as opposed to sassiness (or whatever else) that's really a "cover up" for depression or eating disorder behaviors or something like that that we should be exploring but are trying to defect or ignore or deny by being sassy... know what I mean? That kind of sassy or complaining or whatever isn't productive because it just gets in the way of moving forward- so you have to be honest about what kind of sassiness your engaged in!

Now, onto a couple comments about Courtney's comments...

success at staying put

Several people told me this week that they didn't think they were doing the "staying put" exercise correctly.

staying put

I've found there are two questions we can ask that help us stay where we are.

sticking with what we have

Most people who suffer from eating disorders like to get things done, are willing to work hard, and tend to be impatient about seeing results.

tsunamis

Since I proposed a project yesterday, thought I'd give you one way of identifying and classifying emotional emergencies, by way of an image.

emotional emergencies

PTC, you HAD to know I'd make use of your "In emergency, shut down" bumper sticker- plus get you tease you a bit about it being clever :)

predicting emotions

The experience of being surprised by our feelings, as Courtney describes, can be alarming. And it can easily lead to a couple of responses: shutting down at the moment we are surprised by a feeling, or shutting down in anticipation of an emotion arising (either imminently or at some random point in the future).

saying goodbye

Ann, how about if you start by printing out your last comment and taking it into your next meeting with your therapist?