Welcome

**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 Clare Harmon, a former Emily Program client, and woman in recovery

Recently, I interviewed for a teaching job in the Lower Ninth Ward. After a grueling set of questions, an assessment of my tenacity, my ability to weather verbal abuse, and the telling query “are you comfortable crying in public? ‘Cause these kids will test you,” I exchanged thank you’s with the two-person committee. The corridors that led to the exit were thoughtfully adorned with process art, collages, and outlines filled by vibrant crayon. A scrappy Pomeranian licked my heel and at the threshold of the Walgreens-turned-community center, I accepted a “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

Anxiety and Eating Disorders

**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 Clare Harmon, a former Emily Program client, and woman in recovery

I’ve lived in New Orleans for almost two years and I dearly believe I owe some of my recovery to this deeply flawed, deeply rich, and very, very humid city. This, of course, is not to say, “come to New Orleans, recover from an eating disorder in ten easy steps!” Certainly not. Recovery is a practice, a set of skills, a way of thinking and acting. But for me, recovery is also about setting goals and meeting challenges and I can think of no more challenging a city than New Orleans.

Before I continue, I feel obligated to offer a disclaimer. I’ve tried many times to write about New Orleans. Upon first arriving two years ago, I reacted expectedly: Louisiana is not Minnesota and New Orleans is not like any other American city. And this, at first, is perniciously charming to a born-and-bred Midwesterner. People smile, there seems to be music everywhere, the lushness of live oaks gives gracious respite from a near-suffocating Southern sun. But eventually, the tourist’s rose-colored glasses come off and you realize this is a city of extremes: wealth and poverty, corruption and goodness, violence and fellowship. And then, of course, the Storm, about which the complex befores and afters I have only just begun to fathom. All that said, I’ll do my best not to fetishize the city I cannot help but love.

Hi Everyone,

Today we are taking a look at some commonly questioned foods when it comes to servings. As always, your body has needs unique to you. Nourishing yourself in a way that meets those unique needs is what’s most important.

This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences on their own path to recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, or symptom use. Please use your own discretion. And speak with your therapist when needed.

By Liz Rognes, a former Emily Program client in recovery. She is a teacher, writer, and musician who lives in Spokane, WA.

I’ve relapsed many times. I’ve had everything from little hiccups, slips, trips, stumbles, big falls, to full-on crashes. When I first started treatment, I couldn’t make it a day without using eating disorder symptoms or without obsessing about some aspect of food, my body, and my perceived lack of worth. Frequent relapses fed my eating disorder. Any time I slipped or crashed, I would sink into shame. I would count relapses as evidence that I was not capable of succeeding and that I did not deserve to get better.

Friends and treatment providers would challenge me on that kind of thinking, but I couldn’t seem to escape it. I would feel positive when I was doing well, but when I struggled, I felt like I lost all traction, and all of the negativity of the eating disorder would come rushing back at me.

We are extremely excited for the upcoming opening of our residential treatment center in Cleveland this June! Our teams have been hard at work making progress to be ready to open our doors to clients soon!

By Tiffany Hammer, The Emily Program Outreach Specialist

Did you know one of the most defining moments of Mr. Rogers’ life was being teased for being fat at the age of 8? The schoolyard bullies called him “Fat Freddy” and teased him mercilessly. “I used to cry to myself when I was alone,” he said. “And I would cry through my fingers and make up songs on the piano.” The adults around him would tell him to stay silent and not react, which was an emotional injustice to him. As a defining moment in his life feeling helpless through ignoring the cruel words, he decided that he would always look past the surface and see what was invisible as the essence of a person.

What breaks my heart most about this, and makes me rather defensive, is that this is Mr. Rogers–one who is recognized as one of the kindest people who has ever lived–being tormented and teased about his weight. To pour salt in the wound, that was in 1936 and even now we still have people of all ages mocked and teased for their appearance. We know, socially and culturally, that basing judgment on someone’s appearance is wrong. There are plenty of adages like “don’t judge a book by its cover” or “it’s what’s inside that counts,” we know better! Yet, there are some culturally held biases that, while unspoken, are accepted on a society scale. One of these biases that are incredibly pervasive is the shaming of people who are “overweight.”

By Dana Rademacher, intern at The Emily Program

We all have stress in our lives; whether from school, work, family, or countless other contributors, we all face stress in some way or another. Oftentimes, it can be hard to live outside this stress and it can seem to take over our lives. As someone who has lived with anxiety, this can feel especially true and I needed to find something that could help me manage my anxious feelings.

For me, it wasn’t about getting rid of anxiety completely, (because it is almost impossible to never experience that emotion) but I wanted to keep it in control, so my therapist suggested meditation and mindfulness practices. These practices helped me a great deal in managing my anxiety (and I would suggest anyone who is feeling stressed to try some!), but meditation also helped me learn things I can apply to other areas of my life.