Eating Disorder Treatment Study

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/vol/1413539212.html

The University of North Carolina’s Eating Disorders Program is developing a treatment for couples where one partner has anorexia nervosa, UCAN: Uniting Couples (in the treatment of) Anorexia Nervosa. Participants will receive study-related treatment from the UNC Eating Disorders Program team at no cost and payment for participating in additional assessments. If you are 18 years or older and are married or have been in a committed relationship with your partner for over a year and currently live together, you may be eligible. More information is available in the research corner of our website, www.unceatingdisorders.org. Please contact the Research Coordinator at (919) 966-3065 or ucan@unc.edu for more information.

Fight ED by posting these...Inspirational Imagery

These are just some images I got from the web and then used as backgrounds for some inspirational imagery and some awareness tools. I invite you to print them off and post them around your house where you can. If you would like the original PDF's please email me at theleggg@gmail.com


If anyone makes their own that they find helpful please email them to me and i'll post them here.


Remember that you are God's child and that he is here for you. When you are anxious, scared, fearful, hopeless, sad, confused...just listen for him and even in his silence his comfort will quiet your mind. Prayer is a powerful tool against ED, against Ms. Perfectionistic, and others.

I know it is hard but we must remember that our bodies are God's temples. We are meant to use them as "a living sacrifice." Letting ED determine how we use our bodies, our minds, our souls is not God's plan for us and it will ruin our life, our purpose on Earth...for every child of God has a purpose. We just need to listen intently to realize it.

Fear is a common factor for all of us who suffer from eating disorders. Fear of the unknown, fear of the future, fear of the past, fear of other's perceptions, fear of so much...but God is our stronghold, our savior and as soon as we realize that we are saved there is nothing to be afraid of. Challenge ED's determination to make us fearful with this scripture. He may try to dissuade us with his lies but if we are clear headed those lies are paper thin. The truth is a brick wall against ED.

The Lord always hears us. Continue to ask for help...but don't just ask. You must also do. He gives us the tools to succeed, we just need to use them. Never forget to ask yourself...what would Gods will be in this moment?

When it is hard to stop obsessing over body, food, weight, numbers, patterns, behaviors...try to think of all the beauty that surrounds you. Go outside touch the grass, smell the flowers, gaze at the sky, feel the breeze, the warmth of the sun or the crispness of the cool air (depending on the season :) ). There is much to love and appreciate in this world. ED is not the end all to beat all...Challenge him. It will get easier with practice.

Maybe most important is this...sometimes we wonder why God doesn't stop ED. Why does he allow us to go through such horror? Why are these temptations so strong and evident? Remember, that while God does allow us to face temptation, he ALWAYS, and I do mean ALWAYS provides an escape route for us...a way around the temptation...Just practice self awareness. What escape route is God presenting for you right now in your time of need? Is it a call to a friend you keep thinking about? Is it a walk around the neighborhood? Is it listening to a song and dancing around? Is it praying? Practice looking for these escapes.

Finally, this is a tactic I got from www.somethingfishy.org called "Stop, Swap, Console" It helps me immensely. I have a copy posted on my toilet seat and one on the refrigerator (laminated of course for easy cleaning). Sometimes I conveniently overlook them, but I'm starting to look at them with intent more and more...I've posted a "Coping Bank" (a list of healthy coping tools) in the same vicinity of each Stop sign image for extra guidance.

Controlling One's Mind through Christ

Romans 12:2 (New International Version)

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2 Timothy 1:7 (New International Version)

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

After watching the true campaign's interview with Bill Dallas, writer of "Surviving San Quentin" I decided to refer to two of the verses he used as spiritual guidance when looking for inspiration on how to survive his prison stay with peace of mind and mental clarity and strength.

They resonate with me as most spiritual passages do. Specifically, they let me see that God wants me to be powerful, he wants me to FEEL, to experience, to love, and to be transformed in the spirit...not to be enslaved by my own physicality. Once again, it brings up the reality that in the final days before the next life, it is not realistic to think that the topic of thought and reflection will be how I appeared to the outside world, how I bowed down to ED and spent my days thinking about the future and forgoing the present...but rather if I was good, if I was able to persevere and control my thoughts to focus on Him and his aims for my life; a life that he so purposefully and lovingly gifted to me, his child. Did I truly live? Did I experience all the beauty, sorrow, triumph, and gifts that this life has to offer through the guidance and purpose of the higher power?

I hope that in those days I will be able to say that I was at one with God, that I was present in every moment I could be, that I fell but that I rose again for Him and for myself, that I impacted another life towards freedom and self fulfillment with his hand on my shoulder guiding me all the way.

Recovery is a journey, and one that we must partake fully in in order to cast off our demons and see the light in every stunning facet, in every luminescent ray of hope and spiritual prosperity. It is our path...but reverting to ED is not. Remember dear friend, that a pothole a speedbump need not be a bottomless abyss. It can be a refresh button so to speak...a new perspective, a lesson learned...another item to add to the database of knowledge we store and use inevitably against those demons and for the betterment of our existance, our experience here on this earth, and the world beyond.

Live Well, Love Fully, Experience All You Can in His Name.

May Peace be with you THIS MOMENT and every moment there after.


(Check out the True Campaign's Podcasts by Constance Rhodes and visit www.findingbalance.com and www.truecampaign.org for more on Bill Dallas' interview and other inspirations)

Killing Us Softly 3

Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women

Produced and Directed by Sut Jhally

(click on above link to view video)

"To a great extent, advertising tells us who we are and who we should be. What does advertising tell us today about women? It tells us just as did it 10 and 20 and 30 years ago that what's most important about women is how we look. The first thing the advertisers do is surround us with the image of ideal female beauty so we all learn how important it is for a women to be beautiful and exactly what it takes." –Jean Kilbourne

Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising's depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.

Sections:

• Does the beauty ideal still tyrannize women?
• Does advertising still objectify women's bodies?
  
• Are the twin themes of liberation and weight control still linked?
• Is sexuality still presented as women's main concern?
• Are young girls still sexualized?
• Are grown women infantilized?
• Are images of male violence against women still used to sell products?
  

(Excerpt from main website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.mediaed.org

Diabulimia: Bulimia in Diabetic Patients

http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/diabulimia-new-eating-disorder-among-diabetics/

Let me know your thoughts...i'm interested in your POV.

I find it sad and interesting that eating disorders are so complex, broad, and all inclusive.