Can’t Horseback Ride Because of Your Size? That Might Just Be a Load of “Horse Shit.”

Horseback riding when fat [Image description: back of a fat person with long flowing blonde hair and a purple shirt, riding a horse]

By Carolyn Comas, LCSW, CEDS-S, Clinical Supervisor Navigating the world in a fat body can be frustrating and may feel disheartening. There are, unfortunately, some activities and spaces that do not accommodate people in large bodies. When someone in a big body encounters spaces that do not accommodate their larger body, it’s common to conclude …

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Can CBT for Eating Disorders Be HAES®-aligned?

CBT plus HAES for Eating Disorders [Image description: large bodied gender neutral person seated and facing a therapist whose back is to the camera]

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the most effective approach for treating adults with eating disorders, including bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The most recent and commonly taught and implemented version is an “enhanced” protocol, CBT-E (Fairburn, Christopher G., 2008). Unfortunately, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for eating disorders is not always employed in a weight neutral way, …

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Are you preoccupied with thoughts of food? Restriction may be the cause

Intrusive food thoughts [image of business woman at computer looking distracted]

If you find that you are thinking about food all day, having trouble concentrating, or even having trouble sleeping, the reason might be simpler than you think: You might not be eating enough. People I see are often surprised to learn that what they think is healthy discipline is often highly disordered eating. We live …

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The Milky Way: Why We Encourage Inclusion of Dairy in Eating Disorder Recovery

Dairy Eating Disorder Recovery

by Shelly Bar, MD, Katie Grubiak, RDN, and Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D. Dairy is tasty and good for you. Despite this, there are a lot of folks who are scared of it. You may have eliminated dairy from your diet in pursuit of better health or better digestion. You may have heard that the elimination of …

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Is Weight Suppression Driving Your Binge Eating?

Is Weight Suppression Driving Your Binge Eating?

If you have bulimia nervosa, did you know that being at a weight that is too low for your body could be a problem? And that it could be driving your binge eating and other behaviors. Many people are aware that patients with anorexia nervosa need to gain weight in order to recover, but few …

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How Diet Culture Can Harm Your Recovery from ARFID

ARFID Diet Culture

by Carolyn Comas, LCSW, CEDS-S People diagnosed with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) struggle with consuming adequate nutritional intake due to either 1) fear of aversive consequences (i.e choking), 2) low interest in food altogether, or 3) sensory sensitivity to food textures, smells, or appearance. Usually, people with ARFID do not report refraining from …

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How a Health at Every Size(R) (HAES) Approach Can Help With Eating Disorder Recovery

Health at Every Size and Eating Disorder [Image description: black larger bodied woman eating a donut]

Eating disorders are not only about body image. Nor have they only recently arisen in response to societal pressures to be thin. In fact, eating disorders date back to at least the 13th and 14th centuries, when it was documented that women were fasting to demonstrate religious devotion. However, today eating disorders do occur in …

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What Parents of Teens with Eating Disorders Need to Understand About Diet Culture

What Parents Need to Know About Diet Culture

  Many parents experience guilt when their teen is diagnosed with an eating disorder. Nearly every parent can point to a time they themselves dieted, opted not to have a dessert they really wanted, expressed a preference toward thinness, or discouraged their child from keeping eating. You may have done things to try to keep …

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