If you live near a college campus, you probably have seen the signs pointing incoming students where to go to find their dorms, register for services, buy books for their classes, and find the dining hall. In Baltimore where I live, I see students all over the urban campuses walking up and down the sidewalk […]
Take Control of Seasonal Depression
Does the thought of driving home from work at 5 PM in complete darkness get you down? If so, you’re not alone. You’ve probably heard about the “winter blues”—when temperatures drop and the days get shorter, we stay indoors more often, we tire more easily, and we may feel a little melancholy. But it might […]
Depression sucks, but you don’t
I have clinical depression. Long before anyone diagnosed me with an eating disorder, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. It’s been 26 years since I began taking medication for this debilitating illness, and for the most part my life has been good since then. But the thing about depression, it’s cyclical. It comes on […]
Danger Of Social Media
We are slaves to social media. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. These are less than handful of the ones that exhaust our data on cell phones and tablets. Every like of a post gives us a little dopamine push in our brain. Every post we find distasteful raises our blood pressure and adrenaline. It’s become our […]
Bullying of a little boy leads to his suicide
Daniel Fitzpatrick was a young boy, age 13, who lived in Staten Island with his family until he killed himself. He was the victim of bullying by his classmates and teachers alike. First it was about being heavy, then about his grades, and eventually about his depressed and anxious state of mind. Even though he […]
A Year in Review
As 2015 comes to an end, I’ve done some reflecting. If you follow TBITC blogs on a regular basis, you may already know that this past year has been a trying one for me. I’ve adjusted to life as a newlywed, been faced with an intense struggle with depression, relapse in unhealthy and maladaptive coping […]
Perfectionism versus healthy achievement
A while back I read Daring Greatly, a wonderful book about vulnerability by the author and researcher Brené Brown. In her book, Brown talks a lot about perfectionism, a trait common in individuals who develop eating disorders. Her discussion about the difference between perfectionism and healthy achievement really resonated with me and helped inform the […]
Summer setbacks mean it’s time to get help
I hate seeing this. But it’s happening more and more at this point of the summer. Clients are coming in reporting increased struggles with self-care. The kids are back home and underfoot. Work is ramping up plans for a big end of summer push. The swimming pool … ’nuff said. The desire to diet, to […]
ED is not their choice | The Body Image Center
A loved one finds they have had enough of their wife/husband/son/daughter’s eating disorder (ED) behavior. It’s just too damn much to monitor their meals, sit through the tantrums, tirades, and tears, and manage the home and other responsibilities on top of it all. Out comes the threat that they’ll leave or send their loved one […]
It’s hard to be a vulnerable man
My dad liked to tell the story of being a young man, about 15 years old, and getting into fights. His favorite yarn entailed getting the crap beat out of him by this one particularly tough kid who clocked my dad right in the gut so hard that he doubled over in pain. This gave […]