no

I am in an online support group now that I just use to process some things and check in. I mostly offer encouragement to those just starting out. Giving back has been an important part of me maintaining my stability. My center also does what is called e-journaling. It is a combination of journaling and emailing. You journal in an email and send it to your therapist. You get the benefit of processing things that come up in between therapy, know someone is listening, and keeps my therapist aware of what is going on so when my individual sessions come on Fridays she already has a good idea of what areas we need to focus on and our time is better spent getting right down to business. It has also helped me keep a sense of connection when I transitioned from IOP to outpatient.

One of the reasons my treatment center is so economical is because it is located in Ohio and doesn’t offer things like massage, acupuncture, equestrian therapy, or a ocean view. Again, it is highly based on research and none of these things has proven to increase chances of recovery.

Yes, all of the above plus reading alot of books. These types of treatments can alter your thinking (for the better) and prompt behavior change

Chiropractor.  I have a good one who considers himself part of the “team”.  I don’t have a regular schedule with him.  And he takes me as I am on any given day.  I fell when my potassium was 2.4 …blunt trauma left elbow and some shoulder and neck screw up. ooops   Couldn’t go to the ER where I work for that.  He helps with stuff like that.  Plus he’s just another good person with good energy in my life and I sleep better after.

Art therapy was good in the hospital and this last time it was specific to trauma.  In the program they teach you a lot about using your non-dominant hand to access your feelings if you are “stuck”.  We did a lot of art therapy and journaling this way and when we were in groups and we were working on things, if the therapists at any time saw us stuck or frozen, they would come over and say, “Switch to your non-dominant hand.  Draw with the other hand.  Write with the other hand.  Put the pencil in your other hand.  Try with you other hand.”  It would always work.  Stuff would just flow out onto the paper. You wouldn’t always know what it was going to be but you would always end up crying and crying. Something about causing the right and left brain, the logic and feeling parts connect. Interesting and usually symbolic things come out.  Messages from deeper inside me.  I don’t always understand it right away.  Often times my therapist does.  He does depth work, trauma and Jungian dream analysis.  He has that added insight, you know, the kind I go in search of in a therapist. 

But I learned that non-dominant hand thing in TX.  But there are art therapy books out there on it and they gave me some good referrals.  Very helpful.

Since the ED is not about the eating, might be helpful in what I call the “heat” of symptoms, to try to figure out what’s REALLY going on.

I did a collage once instead of bingeing and purging.  It was an angry-assed collage!!  And HUGE!  I cut and pasted and cut and pasted violently!!  Just like I was on some big binge and purge.  Didn’t even look at it until I was done.  And…..really couldn’t show anyone except my therapist.  Extremely revealing.  Basically told the down and dirty details and the artist in me arranged them and darkened them and encircled things just so, to give good feeling to it.  Had to ultimately burn it.

Art therapy good.  That’s the one and only time I’ve ever found a “match” for the binge/purge.  Just that time.

I practice yoga regularly. It keeps me in touch with my physical body and helps me to accept and appreciate the amazing miracle of my body.

I also practice meditation and pranyama. Helps to clear my head. Feels very kind and cleansing.

Not really. I have treated myself to several massages after my recovery. Ahhh…lovely!  For me, also learning to become involved in the community, and becoming socially active, has helped me a lot. I have been fortunate to have built myself a great support system. My history of anorexia is not something I hide. I don’t throw it in people’s faces, but I am proud of who I have become, and although there was a lot of pain involved, I believe that I am who I am today because of my life experiences….including having a chronic eating disorder.

Art therapy was the first outlet I had for letting someone else know that I had been abused sexually. When I couldn’t talk about it, art therapy helped me to start to release my problems and become somewhat more open. It is only when someone else knows what the problem is that they can start to help you. I used clay as a medium because it was malleable and helped me to get around things indirectly when needed. The clay provided a talking point which I wouldn’t have been open to otherwise. It could also represent different things on any given day and whereas a picture is static, clay is malleable and changeable throughout the day of therapy. It was also very important for my art therapist to be in direct contact with my psychiatrist so that they could provide support when going through something very difficult  where I felt extremely vulnerable and confused.

Art therapy has always been a favorite of mine.  I can express in a painting all the words I lack in language.  Visualization into my mind reveals places I didn’t even know existed, and has helped me find positive outlets to my feelings and thoughts.

Equine Therapy helped me immensely in working through some of my ocd issues.

I run an online support group right now called Meetup.com—Eating Disorder Support and Help in San Diego.  I also have various support groups on my facebook profile in which I connect with people.

I was able to participate in and enjoy yoga classes 2 times a week while hospitalized, an art class was also provided on Saturdays and one of my favorite groups was photography!  These types of groups are things that I found very helpful just for the fact that I would have never afforded myself these opportunities before and now I have some totally new interests in my life!  Just having a small class or trip or hobby to look forward to is of great encouragement to anyone, and especially to someone in the process of overcoming an eating disorder!  Finally, something else to focus on besides FOOD!  YEA!

( 1 )  After I quit smoking in 1975, I put on a lot of weight very rapidly – maybe 20 or 30 pounds over a few months time.   I was already doing daily yoga (and had been for 10 years) which I do think helped, but not enough.   At that point, I added in Transcendental Meditation in the hopes that would be the answer.  It is a great practice, I still do it now, but it didn’t make a noticeable difference in my overeating.

( 2 )  I added in a practice to my daily Yoga, which I think was extremely important.  I had decided that hating my body, and dwelling on “the shell”, was a part of the problem, and that loving myself would be part of the solution.  So after the corpse posture (each day at the end of my yoga practice), I would sit up, grasp my toes, and work my way up my entire body saying, “I LOVE MY TOES, I LOVE THE SOLES OF MY FEET, I LOVE MY ARCHES, I LOVE MY HEELS, I LOVE MY ANKLES…” and so forth, leaving out nothing.  It made me laugh every time. 

( 3 )  I started visualing a candle flame in the middle of my body, around my heart or solar plexis, and would affirm “I have access within me to the Source of Infinite Love, Infinite Power, and Infinite Wisdom.”  I would shift my focus to this whenever I noticed myself feeling preoccupied with how my body might appear (as obese and unattractive) to others.