Welcome

Episode description:

Pride Month is a time for protest and activism, for celebration, visibility, and community. It’s also a reminder of the inequities faced by LGBTQIA+ people, and the work that remains to ensure safety and acceptance for all. That includes addressing disproportionate adverse mental health outcomes—eating disorders among them.

School’s out, and the house is full again. Maybe your teen is home all day for the first time since the fall, or your college student just moved back in with a semester’s worth of laundry. Either way, summer puts more of your child’s daily life where you can see it. Meals that happened in a school cafeteria or dining hall now happen in your kitchen. Downtime is at home now, not between classes.

Sometimes that closer view comes with a sense that something about your child’s eating habits, exercise, or mood has changed.

Behaviors that might have developed during the school year—and were easy to miss between classes, practices, and packed schedules—can come into focus with more time face-to-face. If your gut says something is off, that’s worth your attention. Eating disorders are serious and more common than most people realize. But they’re also treatable, especially when they’re caught early.

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Kimmy Schuelke (she/her) is a teacher, speaker, and author of the children’s book The Tangle. A survivor of both a long-term eating disorder and colon cancer, Kimmy integrates somatic work and yoga into the classroom to help students regulate their nervous systems for better learning. She is a passionate advocate for ED recovery and systemic change, somatic work, and trauma-informed education, proving that our bodies are the vessels for our stories, not the sum of our worth.

Learn more about Kimmy on her website, or follow her at @teachingkimmy on Instagram and YouTube.

For a long time, I lived in a body I didn’t even recognize. I remember my first session with my therapist. I was sitting there, and I looked down at my own hand resting on my lap. She asked me how an emotion felt in my body. I couldn’t answer her because I couldn’t connect with any part of my body. She told me to start with my hand. I had to stop and really think about the fact that it was mine. I was so disconnected from myself that I couldn’t even process that my hand was a part of me. That was the reality of my life for almost four decades. I was just a passenger in a body I didn’t trust.

Episode description:

Research suggests that 25 to 50 percent of people with eating disorders have also experienced trauma, and that the two conditions tend to reinforce and worsen each other when they co-occur. Despite this, care is often delivered sequentially—people are asked to address one condition before they can work on the other, even though the two are deeply intertwined.

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Recovery Conversations is a question-and-answer series that features voices and stories of eating disorder recovery. In this edition, former Emily Program client Alyssa reflects on her recovery journey and what recovery has made possible for her.

Alyssa is a cat mom who loves singing, baking, and freelance design. She spends her free time watching her favorite TV show, Law & Order: SVU.

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

By Jessica Corriher

I am just a human figuring things out in real time. I’m on a healing journey that includes growth, hard truths, and, at times, a little wit. I share my story honestly because healing is messy, laughter is at times necessary, and pretending we’re “fine” is overrated. None of us is meant to do it alone.

When you’re in the middle of a struggle that takes up way too much real estate in your head and life, hope can start to feel like a nice idea—for other people. I know this because for the longest time, I couldn’t picture my future self.

I remember sitting in a high school classroom, faced with an assignment to write a letter to our future selves. Where do you imagine you’ll be in five years? Ten? Everyone around me started scribbling like they had insider information. I just stared at my paper, pen hovering, coming up blank. While visiting my parents over the holidays, I found that letter, which led me here today, sharing my story with you.

Episode description:

Many people are surprised to learn that eating disorders are mental health conditions. Media coverage tends to focus on the visible markers of these illnesses—weight changes, what someone eats or doesn’t eat—and stops there. In this episode, Dr. Lampert breaks down the thoughts, feelings, and neurobiology beneath those physical and behavioral components, and why understanding eating disorders as a mental health condition matters for advocacy, recognition, and getting more people connected to care.

Summer is right around the corner. The unique seasonal pressures that the summer months bring can test even the most solid recovery foundation.

Summer can turn up the volume on existing recovery challenges, but also brings its own: