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I Choose Life: How Poetry Shaped My Recovery Journey

Since I can remember, I have always been critical about the way my body looked. As a little girl and growing adolescent, I began to compare myself to the "ideal" shapes and sizes of women in my culture, seen in magazines or T.V., and even my…
Girl Looking Out Window

Anorexia Nervosa: From Symptom Onset to Recovery Management

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My eating disorder (”ED”), anorexia nervosa (AN), emerged when I was 12. Over time, like others, I learned to personify and separate the voice of “ED” from my own. “ED” constantly yelled at me, told me that I wasn’t enough, that…
Girl Holding Sun

What’s Left Unspoken: Sri Lankan Culture and Eating Disorders

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Something monumental happened on April 5th, 2017: for the first time in my life, I spoke openly with my mom about my eating disorder. I had returned home after advocating on Capitol Hill for eating disorder parity and called my mom to recap…
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7 Ways to Practice Self-Care This Easter Weekend

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With Easter can come some inevitable holiday stress. Whether it be interacting with difficult family members or remaining calm around the dinner table, managing self-love can be difficult for many. Here are seven ways to reduce stress and sit…
Ciara Rae - NEDA

“You Are Beautiful and Loved”: An Interview with Country Artist Ciara Rae

Ciara Rae, an up and coming country artist based out of Nashville, expresses her strengths and self-love through her powerful lyrics. Having struggled with an eating disorder, she hopes to help others in the process of healing with music. At…
Feet on Chalk Bricks

Shifting My Perspective on Recovery

While some of us may share an eating disorder diagnosis, every person’s eating disorder is different. Each one has different contributing factors. Each one started at a different time in our lives. Some people’s eating disorders go on for…
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Orthorexia: A Deceptive Diet

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“Be sure to eat your vegetables.” For me, this saying was an everyday staple of my childhood, and although it has been nearly half a decade since I last lived with my parents, I still try my best to follow a healthy diet and lead a healthy…
Woman Walking on Path

Determined to Succeed at Any Cost: Eating Disorders in Division 1 Sports

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! … It’s 5:30am and the alarm is going off. It’s Tuesday morning. My stomach does a flip when I realize what day it is. However, I’m not anxious about the dreaded morning weight circuit, like most of my teammates are,…
Guy Standing on Hill

Overcoming ED, My Biggest Bully

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For all of my childhood, I was considered "overweight." Whether it was my food choices or just genetics I'm not sure, but I was okay with it. I was a happy kid and I enjoyed life and everything it had to offer. As I started to get older, people…
Girl Sunset Silhouette

Feeling at Home in My Body: My Personal Revolution

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Resolutions aren’t really my thing. I am all for “clean slates” and “fresh starts” and any other similar optimistic metaphors that apply that help put us in a positive frame of mind where we feel motivated and can make meaningful progress…