Cranky

thinking most if not all of the asks were probably from the same person because like. there's nothing I can see in your recent blog activity that talk about EDs or DD era at all.

either way like. there are other MCR blogs. you are fantastic and I love following you but your blog is not the definitive MCR information hub. you have preferences in what you post, just like literally everyone else, and you're not obligated to give anyone an explanation as to what those preferences are and why.

also anon like. as someone who struggled with an ED for literally over two decades of my life and who isn't even 30 yet. fuck you? legitimately go fuck yourself. we all have different experiences and different needs and different journeys and what you see as coddling some of us see as having our boundaries respected. you want to see DD era shit? follow a blog that posts that. don't demand that a literal stranger fully satisfy your every desire. it'd be creepy even without your ableist whining. fuck off.

i’m getting increasingly concerned about the ascendancy of the intuitive eating model in eating disorder treatment. intuitive eating is not an appropriate intervention for people with active eating disorders; it’s never the first line of treatment (it’s usually the last! and it isn’t essential).

i swear diet culture did this sleight of hand where it declared that the opposite of diet rules is ~intuition~, but it’s not rules that are a problem, it’s restriction, and when you tell a bunch of restriction-programmed people to listen to their intuition, they’re gonna restrict.

ESPECIALLY if their brains have a phobic response to food, which is the deal w clinical EDs. in that case you feed the starved brain or the deprived body, you do the intentional exposure to feared foods, you follow a plan and rules back to life. 

people with eating disorders will follow our intuitions to becoming mortality statistics. we really will, and do. intuitive eating comes after refeeding and renourishment, and if it doesn’t come at all, fine. 

early recovery is not intuitive–it feels bad and scary bc we’re going against what our brains are screaming at us to do. and it gives us our lives back.  

Hope this is OK to RB I wanted to add:

Yeaaaah I got really into the idea of intuitive eating for awhile and while I definitely taught me how to like, listen to what I crave for food.  But if I rely on “eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, pay attention to what you’re eating while you’re eating it”… Then I won’t eat. On top of the currently inactive but still kind of there restrictive ED, I have ADHD and greatly diminished hunger signals due to childhood food insecurity… And thanks to the effects of that ED when it was more active, I have a really small capacity for food in my stomach, digest really slowly, and get bloated/overly full very quickly.

So I can’t do IE, even though I’m a lot further in recovery than I used to be. Because I either won’t notice that I’m hungry or won’t feel hungry for the entire day, sometimes. without someone sitting me down and putting food in front of me and telling me to eat it, I might go without eating an actual meal (or anything) for an entire day and then wonder why I’m dizzy, nauseated and shaking.

I swear, it seems  everyone wants a one size fits all approach to fixing the problems the diet industry has caused* without actually dismantling it because that’s hard and scary. And they’ve just moved onto IE because it’s super easy to also use IE to push dieting. Because for some of us, our instincts re: food are wrong!

(*Not that all EDs are entirely the fault of the diet industry but it sure doesn’t fucking help)

“One of my first encounters with this perception that food could be addictive was early in my career. An acquaintance of mine had struggled with the belief that she couldn’t be trusted with certain types of foods. As such, she innocently thought not allowing these foods in her home would help her son develop a healthier relationship with the foods than she had. As her son grew older, however, I witnessed him sneak and frantically eat these foods when his parents weren’t around. The efforts to restrain his eating and desire for those foods backfired. This was not an issue of food addiction. It was a case of restricted exposure.

This fear of so-called food addiction, for adults and children alike, makes sense in our crazed diet culture. Diet culture doesn’t just encroach on our gyms and social circles, it’s become an insidious and overlooked contributor to media, medicine and top-tier research institutions. When well-respected news outlets report on the “dangers” of eating sugar and Yale University creates a food addiction scale, the public listens.”

13 February, 2020

(the general content of this article won't become irrelevant or moot over time)

The pharmacy had issues getting in their stock of adderall which means I'm going without for a couple days and well this is day 1

Update I ate all of the pasta (and I was a good girl and got one w spinach and tomatoes even tho I hate tomatoes but I couldn't taste them anyway so I win) and half the pizza and if that comes back to bite me in the esophagus I have pepto bismol tablets

I’m glad you’re eating (though I am haunted by your choice of place from which to order pizza and am absolutely gutted that I can’t personally give you Good New Jersey Pizza and change your life forever)!! And healthier options, too, with the spamch and maters! That’s one of the things that trips me up just because it takes...work... And then you have to do it again every few hours

I have to go off my ADHD meds for like two weeks for a medical thing soon (first time without for that long in almost 20 years hhhhh) and I’m gonna either a) drive my partner off the deep end, or b) die

Do y’all ever feel like a toddler trying to take care of itself

Like I just spent 30 mins eating random unsatisfying snacks until I finally figured out I was just thirsty

This post makes me want to take care of OP and I'm the kind of person who opens a fridge, can't see anything I want that is low effort and goes "ugh, wherever, I just won't eat all day".

We're all just toddlers trying to take care of one another and that's adulthood send tweet

Please don’t make your kids eat foods they hate

There’s a way to make sure your kid has a healthy, balanced diet without making them eat foods they hate. If they can’t do the texture of broccoli, do soy or citrus for the same vitamins. “Eat your vegetables” shouldn’t mean choke down the mushy peas that set their teeth on edge. This is a teaching opportunity: “Just because you can’t do this thing doesn’t mean you’re bad, it just means we have to figure out a different way to do it so you’re capable and healthy.”

that is such a great way to put it

I do want to point out that there are a lot of people – kids and adults – who straight-up do not have those other options. They won't get vitamins from non-standard foods because they won't eat those, either.

Here's the important part:

YOU STILL SHOULDN'T FORCE THEM TO EAT THOSE FOODS.

YES, even if they will not have a balanced diet. YES, even if they've learned how to choke it down.

The most important thing is making sure they're eating at all. There's lots of other ways to make sure they get the proper nutrients, but they cannot survive without calories.

Try getting foods that are fortified with necessary nutrients. Try daily multivitamins. Try Pediasure. And slowly, slowly, try to expand the palate by offering foods that are just a little bit different from the usual, but still hit all of the points that your kid or dependent requires to be able to eat it, getting them accustomed to it visually, texturally, et cetera before even putting it in their mouths.

Plus, your kid or dependent could straight-up have a severe allergy or intolerance that's actively causing intestinal damage. One of my family members used to love salmon, but one day she started finding it disgusting. Guess what? Turns out she'd developed an allergy! If she'd been forced to continue eating it, she might have died.

Your kid or dependent chews things up but spits out the dry remains? That's good! It means they're at least getting some nutrients from it, and, hey! You've got a starting point. You can teach them how to break off small bits to swallow before it gets all dry and leathery and they have to spit it out. You can try using a blender or food processor to break foods down so that they don't have as much to spit out.

If all else fails, talk to your kid or dependent about a possible feeding tube. It's easier and a lot less traumatic than having to choke down things your body violently rejects. Negative associations with food bring lifelong, often deadly struggles.

Parents, guardians, caregivers, it's not your job to make sure your kid or dependent eats; it's your job to make sure they're consuming proper nutrients, or at the very least calories. Eating is just one of the ways to do that. There are other options. Please explore them if you need to.

oh no dont eat food, dont you know it has autism chemtrails in it?! your star sign beams you all the vitamins you need

just found out water has a molecule in it, NO THANKS PAL! You know what else has a molecule?? a knife