Eating Disorder Program on National Public Radio
Today I had the privilege of joining Dan Gottlieb, host of National Public Radio’s “Voices in the Family.” Here’s the link:
http://www.whyy.org/91FM/voices.html
Click on the 3/23/09 program
Please write your comments on my blog
Thanks, Jane
March 24th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
First allow me to compliment Jane on an outstanding job of actually delivering meaningful information to the listeners-truly “the heart of the matter.” Second, eatings disorders were classified by this researcher as “rare” so if anyone wants to know what “rare ” means-listen up. Washington DC has declared an epidemic of HIV infection. They are at 3%. The United Nations considers an epidemic as exceeding 1%. I believe this researcher put the eating disorder (total)percentage at around 4 + % although claiming that diagnosed eating disorders are still considered rare. So - when are these “researchers” going to understand that although the value of their work is revered and well supported, the practice of implementation is what delivers actual results in healing? Include this in your research????? Team anyone? The very nature of psychological studies are subjective- meaning that psychology can never be a hard science. The human brain is not a machine. So- please question who “qualified” as CBT in the 12 studies and what did they base this on? Who was actually able to benefit from CBT and why? Who’s own brain was interpreting all of this? Hello????? My point is that each individual responds uniquely as well as each therapist delivers uniquely. You can’t bottle this- you can’t even study this in a true, non-biased way. What about those individuals who were diagnosable and never sought therapy yet “recovered” without traditional help? Kind of shakes things up a bit doesn’t it? This would have been a nice control group, but never happened. A nice attempt by this particular researcher to sell a “script” , and I bet insurance companies would love to use this as a means to exclude. Be smart out there. Hard science research can reveal amazing information -but as Dan said- the best doctor for him needs to know the research and know how to put it to best practice. This is the art. Why would any good information about eating disorders be a means of conjecture?
March 30th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Great job, Jane. Interesting phrasing when you said that “the self turns against itself” in an eating disorder….that phenomenon was certainly made clear in the way Sharon sounded in complete disbelief that she ever acted out such bizarre food and exercise related rituals while she was suffering. Sounds like she is back to her familiar “self” and barely recognizes the eating disordered person when she reflects on that time in her life…so you definitely nailed it.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Another question. What happens when you find the best therapy for yourself but you don’t have insurance or you can’t afford it? Has anyone studied these individuals? No. They can’t study people who don’t have means- financial or logistical or even awareness of their problems. So many people are left out of these groups of ” information”. We know this when we look at our political institutions. I know people suffer more than we will ever be able to account for on paper. I believe that their suffering should count for more on the stat board-simply because we can’t make them a number. We have no way of “accounting” for these people in science. We do have a way of being mindful about them in the art of recovery. We do have that. We do have books and radio shows that can possibly reach these people. I am hoping so. I am really hoping.