OWN and the ATF Live Chat have given another week of wonderful insight and lessons for people with eating disorders. Here are some great comments captured in the live chat session following this week’s OWN Addicted to Food program. I hope that there is something in this that enlightens and enriches your own life.
Tennie on Treatment
- Getting honest with yourself and telling at least 1 other person you can tell the truth to will set you free the lies we tell ourselves keep us in ever-lasting bondage.
- Absolutely you can have those issues buried very deep. But those feelings can be healed … more will be revealed the longer you stay in recovery. You don’t need to push it or look for it.. You will see those issues honestly the longer you stay in recovery and do the work
- Sometimes a person will go to a nutritionist before anyone else and that nutritionist can play a crucial role and the most loving thing you can offer is to offer they go to treatment
- A lot of addicts switch addictions, and it’s not uncommon among to switch back and forth. the list of addictions goes on, but you need to get control of each one
- Shades have 6-day programs available, and you can do two 6-weeks together if you need. Not everyone can do 42 days, and not everyone needs it. We find the right treatment and length of time for the individual.
- Giving up the obsession to a greater power and letting it go to God
- The reason we do early childhood work is to get the history straight It’s not to place blame on anyone, on family, on your history, but you need to see it all…and then – so what?
Tennie on YOU
- Healthy living is a life time choice.
- YOU are responsible for your health and happiness and your life moving forward. You can not continue to blame others for my lot in life and have to takeresponsibility for ourselves. So what? Now What?
- Therapists do not recommend in patient treatment unless they really see a need for it.
Tennie on Eating Disorders
- An eating disorder is a disease. There is usually something that contributes to it, but nothing causes it… we aren’t sure which comes first though really, which is why we have to treat both sides of physical and emotional.
- The most loving thing you can do is to speak with a friend you are concerned with. Go from the heart…
- …Eating disorder is not just for those who are over weight. It’s a personal thing.
- There are emotional eaters, who have had a trauma and they eat over it and gain weight… the weight bothers them and they go on a diet, they lose the weight and it stays off where they can go about the life. Most eating disorder folks have a certain food that they just cannot stay away from. That’s an addict.
Tennie on Food
- For the meal plans, generally we say 8am, noon, between 5-6 n the evening and a snack at 9pm. The evening snack is a metabolic adjustment, often like a baby that eats before bed and then sleeps straight through.
- The best evening snack is some kind of protein, a yogurt, piece of fruit, a cracker – it is in the portion.
- Not everyone that has an addiction has an addiction to sugar. If you can eat it successfully then you can eat sugar in treatment, but certainly not everyone can. The guideline for addiction is if you can eat one and walk away – if you don’t have to have it.
- You can detox from sugar in 5 or 6 days. But that is with no sugar of ANY kind most people that get through the detox, the physical craving isn’t there.
- I do not allow sugar and desserts in my meal plan personally, but others sure can. Others sure can. I eat fruit instead to get the sweet taste. I don’t even eat the sugar free desserts as that can be a trigger for me…but everyone needs to find out what their personal triggers are.
- Wheat can also be a trigger for some folks, it is for me. I have been off wheat for 3 years and it has helped my stomach since I am gluten intolerant it’s helped my arthritis getting off wheat.
- If you eat at regular meal times, about every 4 hours, then you will start seeing the difference between hunger pains and all those other emotions. It might be any other emotion but you don’t know the difference yet between emotional hunger and emotions.
- The best way to get people to face reality is to get them on a meal plan… get the eating in order and up come the issues! That is why it is essential for in patient treatment otherwise you will often note stay on the meal plan long enough… to deal with those issues that you are eating over. Eat on a regular routine and so you can deal with your life issues. You can’t deal with your issues through food.
Additional Comments:
- “There is hope in recovery.…there is a peace I cannot begin to describe It’s emotional to watch the episodes.…a part of me definitely “feels” the pain witnessing all of us re-live it, yet it’s also amazing. I just feel differently now…and it reminds me how far we have all come.” -Camille
- “The Daily Own…I have cried during every episode so far! I its been intense.” – Robby
- “As long as I’m overweight, I’m eating more food than my body needs. If I’m eating more than my body needs, I’m over-eating. Simple.” – Robby
- “I am reminded with each episode that I am still powerless, but that we need food for fuel and I continue the push with the help of OA.” – Chat Participant
Additional Notes:
- Oprah.com videos – http://bit.ly/ATFvideos
- Casting Call information on Oprah.com
- Visit Oprah.com for their favorite tennieisms! http://www.oprah.com/own-addicted-to-food/Web-Exclusive-Tennie-isms