Well, here it is! The inaugural blog post. Where, you might wonder, did this idea come from? A friend from high school told me the other day that I should write a blog, and my first thought was "NO WAY!" But then I thought about it more, and I realized, maybe my writing style and our approach to eating disorder treatment is worth combining, and sharing! So, we discussed it in treatment team today; discussed the pros and the cons, the pitfalls and the benefits, and in the end, we concluded it was worth a try.

One thing I really did not want to do is write a dry, dare I say boring, blog about how to treat eating disorders. After all, if I wouldn't want to read it, why would I assume anyone else would? But then, to be light-hearted about something as serious, as life-threatening, as eating disorders is also a risk. So, here we will try to walk that line and walk it well, because eating disorders are such a serious topic, but at the same time, to survive in this field, and with an eating disorder, you generally have to have a fairly good sense of humor. I have found that patients with eating disorders are some of the wittiest, funniest people out there, and I believe that humor can be life-saving, and something that is often used in therapy. It's one of the things I truly love about my job.

Now, for my first humorous experience on this trek. I thought, what's a good blog without a picture that represents something, so I start typing into Google images and searching for something relevant to eating disorders. And I learned, very quickly, it is easy to find offensive things, and it is incredibly hard to find images that are neither so cheesy a select few of my patients would mock me endlessly, nor so cliche that, well, the same thing would happen. So, here the blog is, completely devoid of an image. I hope to improve on this front, though I make no promises.

I will confess, I don't have a strong sense of the direction of this blog. Of course, I'm a therapist, so we have the obvious answer, which is that I want to help. Of course I do. I am so passionate about eating disorder treatment and believe we have a lot to share about what we have learned along the path of treating these disorders. I believe what we have to offer, as treatment providers, is a relationship. Yes, also expertise in the physiological, medical and nutritional aspects of these disorders, but mostly? Mostly, a relationship. And a blog is another way to initiate that connection with those who need a sense of connectedness. I spend my day fighting the most lethal psychiatric disorder, and honestly, I love doing it. So does my partner, Elena. So, write we will, and we will hope that what we write connects with some of you.

We hope to hear back from you....your thoughts, what you would like to hear more about. Of course, what we cannot do is offer treatment advice over the internet. Unfortunately, we will not be able to respond to individual comments other than to follow up in a future blog post. This does not demonstrate lack of interest, caring, or desire to help. It is simple logistics, that's all.