Special Topics

How do you explain self-love to a group who doesn't truly know the concept? Has never experienced it or finds it silly? Who doesn't realize its sheer importance in the face of all the other items on the agenda?

To watch a loved one suffer with any illness creates a feeling of helplessness at times.

I am a hospice volunteer. Recently my patient, Louisa, passed away. I have been seeing her for many months and we became very close. She was 92, very spry and very alert until the very end. She loved each moment and reminisced about her early days with her family and friends. She made me smile and I made her smile. I will miss her.

When I first heard of the thigh gap, I thought that it was a part of the rotisserie chicken that I would eat at my grandmother’s house every Sunday. The alarming reality is much less witty than that. The thigh gap, a new social media obsession among young girls and teens, is when you are so thin that when you stand with your feet together, your thighs don’t touch.

When I was a little girl, I got a small brown diary with a lock, and in its pages I wrote my deepest thoughts about how I was feeling and what was going on. At times my entries were about trivial things, such as who I liked in class and what my friends and I did at recess. Nonetheless, it was a place where I could express myself and get things off my mind.

I take yoga and enjoy it very much. Recently, the teacher incorporated a new pose into the mix (the Frog). As I got into the pose and began to breath, an uncomfortable feeling overcame me. I was in a bit of pain and wanted to stop. However, I stood my ground, continued to deep breath and felt the feeling. I knew if I gave it some time, the outcome would be beneficial and it was. My body felt great after the pose and it opened up my body in ways I had never experienced before.

I recently had an appointment at my hairdresser's. As I sat in her chair, I thought to myself, maybe I should get a different hair color and spice it up. My thoughts were a bit fearful as I didn't know what I wanted and would have to trust my hairdresser fully. Would I be able to trust her to give me a color that would compliment my skin tone? Would I be able to trust her to know what was best for me? Would I be able to trust her not to make me look funny when I was done? All these thoughts went through my mind. Even though I had fear inside, I was excited for what could be.

Some time after we began outpatient treatment at Walden Behavioral Care I put a picture on my Facebook page of my daughter in her bathing suit by the pool, eating an ice cream with her sister. Many of my acquaintances who did not know about her earlier hospitalization for an eating disorder probably glanced at the photo and said to themselves,“oh, a picture of your kid, big deal.”