understanding anorexia Archives - Everyday Chocolate

February 7, 2024February 7, 2024 by Libby

Understanding Anorexia: The Highly Sensitive Personality Trait

I recently read Elaine Aron’s book, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You and found it incredibly helpful. As someone who often feels frazzled, overwhelmed, overstimulated, and in need of a great quantity of alone time, understanding this more and how I can “help myself out more” in managing this trait through various daily life choices has been quite useful.

I have known for years that I fall into the 15-20% of the population who would be classified as “highly sensitive,” but learning more in-depth about this is helping me to reframe some of my past experiences as well as move forward in making helpful changes in my life and business so as to not feel so overwhelmed, frazzled, and exhausted.

Thinking more about about the high sensitivity trait in general also has had me thinking more about how COMMON I think this trait is among people who end up developing anorexia nervosa at some point in their lives.

While I haven’t been able to find any stats that directly measure this, my personal experience with anorexia, my experience counseling people with anorexia, and what I know of anorexia from years of study leads me to believe that the vast majority of people with anorexia (past or present) are likely HSPs (highly sensitive persons).

Are you a highly sensitive person?

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September 13, 2023September 12, 2023 by Libby

Understanding Anorexia: Set-Shifting

Today I wanted to return to an ongoing series I am doing regarding different facets of “understanding anorexia.” This series will focus on various factors related to anorexia, including biological predispositions, genetic/epigenetic factors, personality traits, micronutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, environmental factors, and more. Anorexia is certainly a complex illness with many “pieces to the puzzle” (many of which are still not well understood). My hope is that these posts will continue to shine more and more light on aspects of what might be going on for each person suffering. (Or, bring more clarity to anyone who has recovered).

You can read my first post in this series on zinc deficiency and anorexia here.

Today I wanted to focus on the concept of “set-shifting” as it relates to anorexia.

This post will discuss:

What is set-shifting?
How might set-shifting relate to anorexia?
What are some practical tips and strategies to consider?

What is set-shifting?

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September 21, 2022September 19, 2022 by Libby

A Few Things That Helped Me in Recovery

Recovering from an eating disorder was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I don’t even think there is a particularly close second?? There is a reason recovery rates for anorexia are generally estimated to be below 50% (and I would argue probably considerably lower, depending on one’s definition of “recovery”), and that it is the mental illness with the highest mortality rate. Not only is it a severe mental illness, but unlike other mental illnesses, the sufferer is literally physically starving themself to death as a result of the internal mental and biological processes gone astray. To make matters worse, the person generally doesn’t realize they are even sick (at least not initially or for a while), and the “anorexia brain” causes the person to not want to get better and to maintain the eating disorder at all costs (again, at least initially).

IT IS A TERRIBLE THING, LET ME TELL YOU! And I have tremendous compassion for anyone reading this post who is suffering or who knows someone who is.

From my own experience and considering the experiences of other people I have talked to or read from, the downward spiral into full-blown anorexia is usually very sharp and sudden. While I have a lot more insight now, when I broadly look back on my experience, it is like I was walking…walking…walking…going about my life, and then suddenly it was like I fell off a cliff and was helplessly consumed by this devastating thing in my mind I had no control over and didn’t even realize was there. Anorexia, from my experience, was like this out-of-body, dissociative experience of devastation taking place inside my mind with drastic physical consequences. While the downfall into anorexia is often sudden, the full climb out is long and challenging, taking a tremendous amount of motivation and perseverance.

However, I believe that full recovery is possible for anyone, no matter how serious the illness or how long it has been a problem in your life.

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June 15, 2021September 12, 2023 by Libby

Understanding Anorexia: Zinc Deficiency

This is part of an ongoing series I am starting called “Understanding Anorexia.” These posts (which I will continue to do every now and then going forward) will focus on different physiological, nutritional, and psychological aspects of anorexia nervosa (AN). Today we will be talking about zinc deficiency! This is a major topic to be aware of you are experiencing AN, have a history of AN, or work with people with AN.

Zinc deficiency is one of the most common micronutrient deficiencies in those with AN. Given that zinc is involved in so many key physiological processes, it is vital for eating disorder treatment and recovery to ensure that your zinc levels are in a good place. In this post, we are going to cover several topics related to zinc including: