Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Would you like to participate in a research study?

Research Study using MRI to examine Bulimia Nervosa in adolescent girls.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

12-21 yrs old

Females

All ethnic groups

WHERE?

The study will take place at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive in Manhattan.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

Participation in our study will include a visit that will require 5-6 hours of your time and include interviews, games and puzzles, and an MRI.

The total compensation will be $100 per person. For more information please call the Eating Disorders Clinic at 212-543-5316 and mention the BN MRI study.

thanks!

name: Rachel Marsh, Ph.D.

telephone: 212-543-5384

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Share Your Letter to Your Eating Disorder Here.....

Dear Eating Disorder,

You have been a miserable enemy destroying my life and also my knot at the end of my rope when life seems overwhelming. Life OFTEN seems overwhelming! So, giving you up was not an option for a long time. I needed you to just get through my life.

To deal with all the uncertainty, self doubt, self rejection, rejection by others, etc…all the stuff that generates highly uncomfortable feelings of pain, sadness, loss, despair, hopelessness, loneliness, abandonment and shame. You, ED, are the poster child for my former complete rejection of myself! A sort of sick detour from accepting the reality of who I am, what I am, the circumstances of my life, etc. You lied to me and told me it could all be different and so much better if I lost weight and looked as beautiful as the media images constantly plastered in front of me. Then you further confused me by offering comfort and solace in food. So, you owned me, eating or fasting, fat or thin, I always turned to you.

Only my work with a wonderful therapist & God saved me from your complete destruction of my life. I borrowed the therapist’s unconditional acceptance and approval for myself until I could begin to offer some of this to myself. We faced my demons, we restructured a lot of erroneous conclusions I had drawn about life, and slowly pulled me out of the hell of my eating disorder. That being said, the biggest and far most powerful thing that pulled me from you, Eating Disorder, was God. I now turn to my faith in a loving, omniscient, omnipotent God who has it all under control. I accept I do not have it all figured out, under control, or even necessarily understand all the painful things that happen in life. Rather, I make the knot at the end of my rope, my faith in God, not food, thinness, or image. This was nothing short of a miracle considering I had been willing to sacrifice my health, my relationships, my future and more to be thin.

I now know that I do not need you Eating Disorder. You are an illusion, a lie, possibly straight from hell. I know that God loves me, created me for a purpose, and that I am beautiful and perfect just as he designed me. I do not need to be anything other than who I am, that is good enough…..

-Anonymous

Thursday, January 10, 2008