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By Sarah • 13 years ago

Thin It to Win It: Competition in Eating Disorder Treatment

When you have an eating disorder (particularly anorexia), people react in one of two ways. Either they want to get you help– or they’re jealous. Obviously, the latter group has some issues of its own. Patients still, however, take in those reactions. It’s everything from, “Wow, I wish I had that much self-control,” to “My goodness you’re so tiny!” or worse, “Tell me how you do it.” The most damaging part of these comments? They don’t stop at the threshold to treatment.

Whether you attend group therapy, intensive outpatient, or especially inpatient/residential treatment, the competition and the comments still happen. We eating disorder patients like to believe (as do our loved ones) that negative body-talk ends when you show up for therapy. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case.
By Sarah • 13 years ago

The “R” Word: An Opinion(ated) Piece on the Language of Rape

There is no gentle way to say it. I’ve been trying to find one for years. When I first started dealing with this issue in therapy, I would use any euphemism, any word besides that word. Attack. Assault. Trauma. Incident. If pushed, I might go so far as to use the phrase, “the ‘R’ word.”

Rape.

For the longest time, rape was “the ‘R’ word.”  Trying to speak it in its entirety caused me visceral pain, like I was literally, physically choking on the word. Even now, years later, that I am as comfortable as a former victim can possibly be with saying and hearing the word rape, I haven’t found a way to speak it delicately. To me, it always comes ...

There is no gentle way to say it. I’ve been trying to find one for years. When I first started dealing with this issue in therapy, I would use any euphemism, any word besides that word. Attack. ...