Understanding ARFID: Causes, Symptoms, and When to Seek Help
When most people think of eating disorders, they often picture someone overly concerned with their body image—restricting calories, skipping meals, and obsessing over weight. But what if we told you that not all eating disorders revolve around body image? In fact, there’s an entire diagnosis that has little to do with appearance at all: Avoidant/Restrictive…
What Is Food Freedom?
What is food freedom? Without a definitive finish line to recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating, it can be hard to identify when or how you can reach a mentality of food freedom. Read on to learn more about food freedom, how to challenge your eating disorder to reach food freedom and what…
Joyful Movement: Rebuilding A Healthy Relationship With Movement In Eating Disorder Recovery
In eating disorder recovery, rebuilding a healthy relationship with movement is a necessary but difficult step. Individuals learning to let go of their eating disorder often grapple with ingrained behaviors and beliefs that once dictated their relationship with movement. Redeveloping a more joyful and healthy relationship to exercise requires a lot of patience and self-compassion….
When Is It Time To Leave School For Eating Disorder Treatment? Here’s How To Know.
If you’re reading this post, then it’s likely that you’re struggling immensely with an eating disorder. Figuring out if and when you need to take time away from school to focus on eating disorder recovery is almost as distressing as having an eating disorder in the first place. But, much like your eating disorder becomes easier…
The Interplay Between Codependency And Eating Disorders
Early eating disorder recovery is tough. It’s worth it, but it may not always feel like it. Without your usual coping mechanisms, you are likely to experience distress or discomfort. At some point, you may start seeking anything outside yourself to find something to make yourself feel better. This includes getting into a relationship. “Love”…
The Weight Loss Resolution: How January Became a Battlefield
New Year’s resolutions weren’t always about weight loss. That shift happened gradually as commercial interests recognized an opportunity in a centuries-old tradition of January renewal. For most of recorded history, the practice of making resolutions at the turn of the year centered on moral or spiritual renewal. Ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods, medieval…
Can You Develop ARFID As an Adult?
In 2013, the DSM-5 introduced avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder as a diagnosis for eating patterns so restrictive they interfere with health and daily life, capturing experiences that had been dismissed for decades as extreme pickiness. The disorder affects approximately 4.5% of the general population—a prevalence rate significantly higher than anorexia nervosa—yet remains largely invisible in…
Can Depression Cause an Eating Disorder?
Depression and eating disorders often rise and fall together like intertwined waves. At ‘Ai Pono, we see this connection every day because emotional pain often asks for relief in ways that can become complicated or harmful over time. Both depression and eating disorders pull people away from their own inner wisdom. Both create a sense…
Is It Wrong to Talk About Celebrity Weight Loss?
A celebrity has lost significant weight. Or perhaps clusters of well-known people appear to be, well, disappearing all at the same time and the same pace, whether it’s one particular family, cast, or demographic. The transformation is stark, and the discourse has become inescapable. You’re seeing two distinct camps emerge online. The first one is…
Starting Eating Disorder Treatment in December: Common Questions Answered
It’s early December. You know you need help. Your treatment team has recommended a higher level of care, or perhaps you’ve finally acknowledged that your eating disorder has progressed beyond what you can manage on your own. And then you look at the calendar, and the holidays are here. December brings a cascade of celebrations:…