Eating Disorder Hope Blog Update

To our dear Visitors and Friends:

We wish to thank you for your continued support and loyalty to Eating Disorder Hope.  Recently, we have made several changes to our websites and blogs, and as a result, we will no longer be posting to this particular blog.  We would like to re-direct you to our new blog, found here.  You can also follow Eating Disorder Hope on Facebook for up-to-date articles, resources, and support for eating disorders and access our website at www.eatingdisorderhope.com.  We thank you for your patience during this time and hope you will continue to choose Eating Disorder Hope for your one stop resource for eating disorder treatment information and recovery tools.  We look forward to continually serving you!  Thank you for being a friend of Eating Disorder Hope.

Blessings,

Eating Disorder Hope

Hope for Compulsive Spending

  An exciting and interesting study was conducted by the University of Minnesota regarding compulsive shopping. The research claims a pill which is used to help Alzheimer’s patients could support compulsive shoppers in abstaining from their addiction. Previous to the study, participants admitted to spending 38 hours a week and more than half of their household income on shopping. After the trial, compulsive thoughts and behaviors were decreased as well as their shopping habits. This study is promising for those who are suffering from OCD of any type, including checking, contamination, hoarding, and rumination. If you or someone you know is suffering from this addiction please consult help as soon as possible. To discover more information regarding this encouraging research, click the following link.

Hannah, Intern at Eating Disorder Hope

Financial Infidelity vs. Physical Infidelity

  When infidelity is brought up into conversation, most of our minds veer in the direction of a physical relationship or perhaps emotional with another man or woman. However, as the economic times have increasingly become worse across the country, financial infidelity is now the largest threat to a stable relationship. In a recently survey which was published by SELF magazine and Today.com, light is shed on the great lengths that some will go to hide the unfortunate destructive financial burdens he or she have accumulated. 23,000 adults were polled by Today.com and SELF and found that 60% view financial infidelity as harsh as sexual infidelity. In an interesting addition, 46% of those polled admitted to lying to their partners about money at one time or another. These fibs included the hiding of purchases, lying about money spent, and hiding cash withdrawals from joint accounts. The blog post titled, Financial Infidelity: Are you cheating on your spouse?, on Huffington Post, lists important steps to take to alleviate financial infidelity before it impairs the relationship and warning signs to look for. If you or someone you know is suffering from compulsive spending, please read this article and seek help immediately.  

Hannah, intern with Eating Disorder Hope 

Will treating addiction as a 'disease' combat a growing epidemic?

If you or someone you loved has struggled with some form of addiction, whether to shopping, gambling, or drugs, you can likely attest to the devastating consequences that may arise as a result of this.  Policy advisors to President Obama are calling for addictions to be treated as a public health issue and are asking for more accessible recovery and rehabilitation programs to meet the need of this growing epidemic.  While there is much debate around this subject, it is difficult to refute the statistics that are revealing increasing injuries and deaths resulting from addictions.  Do you think that by considering and treating addiction as a disease will help those seeking recovery? To read more about this subject, please see original article here.  

Eating Disorder Hope Blog Update

To our dear Visitors:

We wish to thank you for your continued support and loyalty to Eating Disorder Hope.  Presently, our blogs are temporarily under construction as we seek to improve, enhance, and develop greater resources.  During this time, blog posts will be kept to a minimum, but we excitedly look forward to offering you increased resources in the very near future.  In the meantime, please follow Eating Disorder Hope on Facebook for up-to-date articles, resources, and support for eating disorders or access our website at www.eatingdisorderhope.com.  We thank you for your patience during this time and hope you will continue to choose Eating Disorder Hope for your one stop resource for eating disorder treatment information and recovery tools.  We look forward to continually serving you!

Blessings,

Eating Disorder Hope

Blue, Blue Christmas

For millions of Americans, the holiday season can succumb to overwhelming feelings, including depression, loneliness, stress, and anxiety.  Mental health experts maintain that depression tends to climax during the holiday season, affecting an estimated 17.6 million Americans.  Financial constraints and worries can be one of the many contributing factors to the “holiday blues”.  The National Mental Health Association has offered several suggestions for ways to effectively cope with stress and depression during the holiday season such as enjoying activities that are free or don’t require purchasing anything.  Please continue reading here to learn more about ways to effectually manage stress during this holiday season.

What factors during the holiday season contribute to stress or depression?  How do you attempt to manage any stress you might experience during this time?  

Black Friday Advertisements Already!

What's a compulsive shopper to do in times like these? There is so much pressure to buy, save, prepare, shop ahead, relieve stress, it is unrealistic to rely on the outside world for any sense of containment over compulsive spending. Of course, I had already been encouraging you to rely on your inner self but if your inner self is still fragile, receiving e mails targeting your weakest link can be very challenging, to say the least. However, it really is an opportunity to develop a foundation of safety for yourself by resisting certain compulsive and impulsive acts. Even if you have to suffer anxiety and feel the wanting in the meantime, you create a stability that you need in order to continue on a path free of debt and compulsive spending that gives you HOPE! The stability, in case you are wondering, comes from feeling the feelings that surface when you do not allow yourself to shop, spend, and indulge. Feelings are meant to be felt, that's it. There is nothing to "do" in the face of feelings other than to feel them through. I know this may feel like torture for some of you, like a third degree burn victim, your emotional skin is thin. But, in trying to heal your burn, skin needs to grow and your foundation of feeling needs to grow and it grows through experiences.