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:…
Beyond Gratitude: Navigating Thanksgiving During Eating Disorder Recovery
There’s an unspoken expectation that arrives with Thanksgiving: you should feel grateful. The holiday practically demands it. Gratitude is the price of admission to the table, the thing you’re supposed to feel before you’re allowed to participate. For someone struggling with an eating disorder, this expectation can feel like one more thing you’re failing at….
What Are the Different Types of Eating Disorders? Understanding DSM-5-TR Diagnoses
Eating disorders are serious psychiatric conditions that affect how someone relates to food, body image, and physical health. While cultural conversations often focus on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa—a topic we covered in a recent blog—the diagnostic landscape includes a broader range of presentations that reflect the complexity of disordered eating. Understanding these categories matters…
Halloween Triggers Are Recovery Opportunities (Here’s Why)
Halloween happens whether you’re ready or not. The holiday arrives with its costumes, parties, bowls of candy, and social expectations, regardless of how any of us feel about it. For people navigating eating disorder recovery, Halloween concentrates several challenging situations into a short window: wearing costumes that draw attention to or potentially expose your body,…
Eating Disorders and Addiction: Understanding the Similarities and Critical Differences
Eating disorders and addiction share striking similarities. Both begin as attempts to manage overwhelming emotions or regulate distress. Both escalate over time, becoming increasingly difficult to control, and involve secrecy, isolation, and damage to relationships. The parallels run deep enough that many people conceptualize eating disorders through an addiction lens. This comparison makes intuitive sense….
Food Rituals, OCD, & Eating Pathology
Food rituals appear in many forms across mental health presentations. Someone might need to eat foods in a specific order, spend hours checking ingredient labels, or arrange their plate according to rigid rules. These behaviors don’t automatically indicate an eating disorder. They can signal OCD, PTSD, anxiety disorders, or other conditions that manifest through control…
Weight Stigma in Eating Disorder Treatment: What Atypical Anorexia Reveals
Atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN) is often treated as a footnote in conversations about eating disorders, a quieter, less visible counterpart to what many still imagine as the “classic” presentation of anorexia nervosa. But in reality, this diagnosis does not indicate a lesser illness. It reflects a deeper and more systemic issue: the role of weight…
Why Can’t I Feel Hunger? Understanding and Reclaiming Your Body’s Cues
For many people, hunger is assumed to be simple: a growl in the stomach, a signal to eat. Yet for countless others, hunger cues feel absent, unreliable, or muted altogether. If you’ve ever wondered, Why can’t I feel hunger?, you are not alone. Hunger cues can go quiet for many reasons, but three influences often…