The passion behind the project. Why am I here? Hi, I’m Katie. I love to write. I love people. And I have a pretty relentless habit of questioning the systems we are told to trust. I’ve always been someone who thinks deeply, asks too many questions, and struggles to look away when something feels wrong. I’m passionate about people and causes, especially when the people who are supposed to be helped by a system are the ones being failed by it. That is what brings me here. I b

“People your age have graduated with a degree by now.” “Other twenty-two-year-olds have full careers.” “Your friend is buying a house…” “I had kids and a husband by the time I was your age.” These are all unsolicited comments I’ve received in the last year of my life. But I don’t own a house. I haven’t started university. I haven’t started a career. And I don’t have a husband, nor do I even know if I want kids. I’d bet money that you’ve experienced someone handing you their t

“I just don't understand why people starve themselves.” “Just eat.” “Why don’t you try and lose weight in a healthy way?” These are all comments I’ve heard regarding my eating disorder. It’s frustrating and invalidating to be misunderstood. But simultaneously, it makes perfect sense that people ask these questions. An eating disorder is a bizarre mental illness. There are times in my own recovery when I laugh out loud in disbelief at how ridiculous it is to cry for two hours

When you’re not shown the full picture, your brain fills in the gaps with its own ideas. It's human. And quite honestly, it probably saves our sanity. We'd go crazy trying to make sense of everything we don't know. So, I can see how speaking from experience, with knowledge and conviction, can come across as me being "healed." Of course it does. I haven't shown you otherwise, so you've filled in the gaps. I have big ideas. I have deep knowledge. I see the bigger picture, and I

Autonomy is a central piece to supporting somebody through an eating disorder. Patients need to choose whether they will eat their meals, be honest with their support, and resist urges to engage in disordered behaviors, or not. Ultimately, they need to choose whether they want to recover. This is what we tell ourselves in the name of patient-centered care. I do agree, but I need to ask: what happens when the person we are giving full autonomy to is making choices that are tai

Mechanical eating... What happens when we change someone's intake without changing what intake means to them? A simple sip of water made me feel like I had gained 30 pounds. I asked for help and a week later I was handed a meal plan that instructed me to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks per day. I went home alone with my same eating disorder that had zero intention of cooperating… This meal plan is described as “mechanical eating”. It is essentially a tool advised by eating disorder