David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
My Story of Recovery
by Marcia Herrin, Ed.D., M.P.H., R.D., Psychology Today
June 19, 2011
A professional tells her own story of recovery from an eating disorder
I have been asked by several readers of this blog to say more about my own story of recovery from anorexia and binge-eating disorder. I had a classic case of anorexia in the 1960s while I was in high school. With no treatment available in Montana in those years, my anorexia morphed into binge-eating disorder (BED) in college. With only a little irony I say, BED saved my life, especially my health. My period came back with the 50 pounds I gained so that my bones didn't completely disintegrate into osteoporosis. I ended up with the milder diagnosis of osteopenia. My hair quit falling out and started to grow again so I could have the long straight hair that was the style of the times.
As far as I know treatment options didn't exist in Montana in the 1960s and 1970s nor did I have the insurance or finances to pay for treatment if it did. Eating disorders were not in the news then or common enough for the aging pediatrician to diagnose whom my grandmother insisted I see at my anorexia's worst when I was a senior in high school. This doctor didn't check my weight. He gave me birth control pills for my absent periods and told me that rubbing olive oil into my hair would improve it. Worst of all, he didn't schedule a follow-up appointment. Binge eating which often follows anorexia, even to this day was not, even considered an eating disorder in 1970. I joke with my patients now that I could have been famous for inventing bulimia (also not a diagnosis until the late 1980s) but it never occurred to me. Over the next 5 years, I did recover. I quit bingeing and restricting and began eating 3 meals a day with snacks according to appetite and slowly lost 40 pounds (which I have maintained to this day).
The biggest miracle was that gradually I quit letting my weight or eating behaviors have anything to do with my self-esteem. How did I do this without treatment? It actually was a miracle. I found a community of loving, liberal, newly converted Christians that accepted me as I was and pointed me to an exciting view of life to involvement in the world. Slowly my focus changed from being overly focused on me, myself, and I and my body, my eating, my hair, my butt etc to learning about community, doing good for others, and a higher power. My next gift was the coincidences that led me to go back to college (my binge eating forced me to drop out as a sophomore) after 5 years to study nutrition. Another set of coincidences (including losing my faculty position due to budget problems) landed me a job at Dartmouth College's counseling department treating eating disorders and eventually to writing and private practice. I soon knew that I had found my life's work-helping others recover from their eating disorder by developing a new relationship with food and body.
Over the 40 years I have been recovered, it wasn't until about 10 years ago when I choose to explore my personal history and my present relationships with a therapist that I have felt truly on the path to wholeness.
Nutritionist Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto, co-authors of The Parent's Guide to Eating Disorders (Gūrze Books). Marcia is also author of Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. See also Childhood Eating Disorders and Welcome to Marcia Herrin.com
by Marcia Herrin, Ed.D., M.P.H., R.D., Psychology Today
June 19, 2011
A professional tells her own story of recovery from an eating disorder
I have been asked by several readers of this blog to say more about my own story of recovery from anorexia and binge-eating disorder. I had a classic case of anorexia in the 1960s while I was in high school. With no treatment available in Montana in those years, my anorexia morphed into binge-eating disorder (BED) in college. With only a little irony I say, BED saved my life, especially my health. My period came back with the 50 pounds I gained so that my bones didn't completely disintegrate into osteoporosis. I ended up with the milder diagnosis of osteopenia. My hair quit falling out and started to grow again so I could have the long straight hair that was the style of the times.
As far as I know treatment options didn't exist in Montana in the 1960s and 1970s nor did I have the insurance or finances to pay for treatment if it did. Eating disorders were not in the news then or common enough for the aging pediatrician to diagnose whom my grandmother insisted I see at my anorexia's worst when I was a senior in high school. This doctor didn't check my weight. He gave me birth control pills for my absent periods and told me that rubbing olive oil into my hair would improve it. Worst of all, he didn't schedule a follow-up appointment. Binge eating which often follows anorexia, even to this day was not, even considered an eating disorder in 1970. I joke with my patients now that I could have been famous for inventing bulimia (also not a diagnosis until the late 1980s) but it never occurred to me. Over the next 5 years, I did recover. I quit bingeing and restricting and began eating 3 meals a day with snacks according to appetite and slowly lost 40 pounds (which I have maintained to this day).
The biggest miracle was that gradually I quit letting my weight or eating behaviors have anything to do with my self-esteem. How did I do this without treatment? It actually was a miracle. I found a community of loving, liberal, newly converted Christians that accepted me as I was and pointed me to an exciting view of life to involvement in the world. Slowly my focus changed from being overly focused on me, myself, and I and my body, my eating, my hair, my butt etc to learning about community, doing good for others, and a higher power. My next gift was the coincidences that led me to go back to college (my binge eating forced me to drop out as a sophomore) after 5 years to study nutrition. Another set of coincidences (including losing my faculty position due to budget problems) landed me a job at Dartmouth College's counseling department treating eating disorders and eventually to writing and private practice. I soon knew that I had found my life's work-helping others recover from their eating disorder by developing a new relationship with food and body.
Over the 40 years I have been recovered, it wasn't until about 10 years ago when I choose to explore my personal history and my present relationships with a therapist that I have felt truly on the path to wholeness.
Nutritionist Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto, co-authors of The Parent's Guide to Eating Disorders (Gūrze Books). Marcia is also author of Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. See also Childhood Eating Disorders and Welcome to Marcia Herrin.com
