In recovery from eating disorders, it's useful to think and talk about the eating disorder (ED) as a separate being. Unfortunately, "Pro-Ana" and "Pro-Mia" sites use the female personifications Ana (for Anorexia) and Mia (for Bulimia) to covertly encourage ED behavior. As a result, people in recovery are often reluctant to voice female personifications of EDs, lest they be mistakenly lumped in with the pro-ED "movement."

The go-to personification in treatment (popularized by certain books about recovery) tends to be "Ed" - a male figure. However, not everyone in recovery experiences their ED as male. In fact, since the majority of people with EDs are female, and experience the ED as an aspect of self, it makes perfect sense that it would often "feel" female. So, where are all the recovery narratives where the ED is female?

They are missing, but I'm on a quest to find them, to introduce a wider array of options for people going through recovery. If you experience your ED as female, I hope you will share a bit of your journey with her - as a story, letter, poem, or whatever feels right to you. It need not be Ana or Mia - some of my favorite alternatives have been Edie and Edna, but whatever you call her is welcome! I hope to ultimately create a book for others in recovery, and "reclaim" these metaphors from the pro-ED camp. Contact me at reclaimingana@gmail.com for more information, or to share your story!


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Company for Ed

It's not that I don't see the logic and benefit in descriptions of the ED as "Ed." Often portrayed as a jealous, abusive partner, Ed offers an apt metaphor for the verbal (and physical) abuse eating disorders inflict on those they inhabit. I get why people relate to the image of "Ed."

I just think that too many survivors talk about "Ed" because they've read others' descriptions of him, and/or heard about him in treatment - not because they really resonate with all the connotations. I suspect that, if everyone began without a preconceived notion of how to personify their ED, we'd see a much broader range of images and metaphors. That's what I've found when I've worked with people with different types of problems, and I think a similar process would unfold with EDs.

Unfortunately, I also think that the range of images and metaphors people think are "acceptible" in recovery has been limited by the pro-ED "movements" that have usurped feminine personifications of EDs for a destructive purpose. I'm on a one-woman mission to make feminine personifications part of the recovery dialogue - to take back what pro-ED groups stole from us. It's not that I want these personifications to replace Ed; I just want to give him some company!
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