A Journey Through Eating Disorders Support & Recovery

Long before therapy, dietitian, and group appointments, my parents took me to countless doctors appointments because of my disability. I was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, a medical condition resulting in low vision. My eye disease can cause various degrees of blindness and also can come with a variety of co-existing conditions. I was very aware from a young age…

A quote by N.R. Walker says, “Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome.” There was once a time that I couldn’t fully comprehend much less appreciate what it meant to celebrate progression,…

I want to first thank my beautiful community at The Alliance for asking me to take the time to write about my experience as an LGBTQIA person in eating disorder recovery. I am so proud of all of the lifesaving work that you do and I know in my heart that if I would have had access to your services,…

For the past five years, I called New York City home, a home I worked hard to build for myself. Around 2017, I finally felt the hard work of recovery paying off. Heck, I even felt completely recovered from a fifteen-year battle with my eating disorder. I had done the heavy emotional labor in therapy, I had been to treatment,…

“Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival guide”- Morgan Harper Nichols Oh, how desperately I needed someone else’s words to guide me during my family’s darkest days. When my sister was first diagnosed with an eating disorder, all we had was each other. We didn’t tell anyone outside of…

“Feed them and they will come.” This is the mantra of many churches and religious organizations. Growing up, a church service was not complete without the fellowship after the worship service that included coffee, tea, lemonade for the kids, and an assortment of cookies. I never questioned the relationship between snacks and fellowship, but on weeks when, for one reason…

Transitions can be incredibly challenging, especially while in recovery. Change tends to go hand in hand with discomfort, disruption of routines, and the difficult task of trying something different. I often think back to my own transition of moving to a new state and starting my job at The Renfrew Center. Although these changes were exciting, the adjustment period included…

I suffered from the afflictions of an eating disorder for three years. I wanted to take the time to get vulnerable and speak a little about my journey in hope to shed some light on anyone out there currently struggling with an eating disorder. Please know, there is a path to healing and recovery is possible. Starting in 2015, I…

Reasons alum, Rachel S., shares how becoming a mom changed her, and ultimately inspired her to seek the treatment she needed. Who am I? What am I? Where am I? I spent years asking myself the same questions. Often, I was too scared to answer. For most of my life the answer to all of these questions was simple: I…

I was 20 years old when I found out I was Autistic. At that point, I was already four years into a battle with an eating disorder I didn’t know I had. My food issues started early in my life. Like many Autistics, I had severe aversions to certain smells, textures, and flavors. My hunger signals didn’t work well, and…