Veritas Blog

If you have a loved one with an eating disorder, navigating how to best support them can be challenging. You don’t want to say the wrong thing, but you also know that you have to address it and not ignore it. Eating disorders are complicated and at their core, they are brain-based illnesses that no one would choose. While you can’t force a person with an eating disorder to change, you can offer your support and encourage treatment. This can make a major difference to your loved one’s recovery.

The 10th Annual Veritas Collaborative Symposium on Eating Disorders, co-hosted by The Emily Program, will unite healthcare professionals and eating disorders experts around the theme of “Engaging Science, Unifying Voices, and Transforming Access.” In this article, Roberto Olivardia, PhD, a speaker at this year’s Symposium, examines the complex relationship between ADHD and eating disorders.

As we settle into the second half of 2021 and the world increasingly opens up, you might be experiencing a kaleidoscope of mixed emotions — happiness, relief, fear, anxiety. It can be overwhelming to re-engage with our former lives and transition into a lifestyle that we haven’t participated in for more than a year.

The concept of “swimsuit season” isn’t new, but swimsuit season 2021 is uncharted territory for all of us. Not only are we beginning to meet up with people that we haven’t seen in more than a year, but now we may be seen in swimsuits and other warm weather clothing.

The recently merged Veritas Collaborative and The Emily Program today announced the name of its parent company, unveiling “Accanto Health.” Accanto, which means “beside” in Italian, represents the company’s commitment to be with those they serve the whole way on their journey. Accanto Health will maintain both brand names of its leading eating disorders programs, The Emily Program and Veritas Collaborative.

Episode description:

Holly Toronto is a Certified Master Level Coach who specializes in body image. She has five years of experience helping people stop prioritizing other people’s expectations of beauty, belief, or behavior so that they can live their life from a place of wholeness, fully aligned with the truth of who they are. Holly joins us in this episode of Peace Meal to explore factors that impact our relationship with our bodies, as well as some strategies to improve it.

For children and young adolescents with eating disorders, families play an important support role in eating disorder treatment. Families make up the primary therapeutic team for a long time, especially for patients who have a lot of growth, development, and maturing to do in recovery.

Episode description:

Katie Price is a registered nurse and yoga teacher whose understanding of what it means to care for bodies—both hers and others’—has been shaped by her recovery from anorexia. She cares deeply about walking alongside others struggling with eating disorders and hopes that by sharing her story, she can offer hope and support.

In this episode of Peace Meal, Katie offers exactly that. She shares the many gifts within her story of illness and healing, revealing the light, growth, and support that can be found in moments of darkness and challenge.

Mental Health Awareness Month highlights the importance of acknowledging mental health as a shared human experience. A licensed mental health counselor supervisor and certified eating disorder specialist supervisor, Sara Hofmeier lives that mission every day as part of her effort to normalize mental health talk.

Episode description:

Kenzie Osborne is a mental health blogger, chef, recipe developer, and former NCAA athlete. After battling intensely with anorexia, she was able to find peace with food through cooking, traveling, and learning about the many benefits food has on the mind, spirit, and body.

Kenzie shares her story with us in this episode of Peace Meal. We begin by discussing a label long attached to her—“the healthy and fit one”—and its impact on her identity. A daughter of doctors and sister to high-performing athletes, she felt immense pressure as part of a family defined by health and athletics.

Episode description:

Shikha Advani is an incoming master’s student and dietetic intern at Boston University who is passionate about eating disorders awareness, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion in the nutrition and eating disorder fields. As a teenager, Shikha battled anorexia and orthorexia. She hopes her story can help others with eating disorders, no matter where they are in their recovery process.

Episode description:

Dr. Dana Harron is a practicing psychologist, the founder and director of Monarch Wellness & Psychotherapy, and the author of Loving Someone with an Eating Disorder: Understanding, Supporting and Connecting with Your Partner.

Episode description:

Lisa Whalen, PhD, is the author of Stable Weight: A Memoir of Horses, Hunger, and Hope. Her writing has also appeared in An Introvert in an Extrovert World, The Simpsons’ Beloved Springfield, Introvert, Dear, and Adanna, among other publications. Lisa teaches writing and literature at North Hennepin Community College and is an equestrian and volunteer for the Animal Humane Society.

In this episode of Peace Meal, Lisa describes two key components of her eating disorder recovery: writing and horseback riding. Underscoring the multifaceted nature of the healing process, she reflects on how writing and riding each offered unique lessons for her mind and body. Writing, she explains, supported and extended her therapy lessons, while riding provided a space to put the lessons into practice. Lisa introduces us to a few of the horses that served as mentors throughout her recovery, highlighting the lessons they could teach us all about staying present, taking up space, and being imperfect. She then translates how these and other recovery “nuggets”—the wisdom learned from horses, writing, and therapy—continue to serve her life and career.

Episode description:

Emily Layden is a writer and former high school English teacher from upstate New York. A graduate of Stanford University, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, The Billfold, and Runner’s World. She joins us in this episode of Peace Meal to discuss her debut novel All Girls. We explore the depiction of disordered eating and anxiety in the book and society more generally, using Emily’s experience with the co-occurring concerns as context along the way. 

We center our conversation on one of the characters of All Girls, Macy, who struggles with clinical anxiety and an eating disorder resembling ARFID. Emily tells us about her decision to write Macy as she did, eschewing graphic descriptions of behaviors to highlight Macy’s anxious thoughts instead. She describes what she hopes All Girls adds to the larger conversation about eating disorders and the adolescent females among whom eating disorders are particularly prevalent. Emphasizing the importance of taking both eating disorders and young women more seriously, we explore how society tends to think similarly of both.

Renowned eating disorders clinician, speaker, and advocate Chase Bannister has been named as the first senior vice president for community engagement for The Emily Program and Veritas Collaborative, two of the nation’s leading eating disorders programs, which merged in March. He will begin his new role June 14th.

Pride Month reminds us to promote awareness and education around the spectrum of unique challenges that the LGBTQIA+ community faces, including a greater risk of developing an eating disorder.

Episode description:

Maddy Walters is a psychology student passionate about eating disorder research and advocacy. She brings her passion and personal experience to this episode of Peace Meal to help us examine the intersection of social media and eating disorder recovery. We explore what it’s like to share your recovery online and to engage with others sharing theirs.

Maddy reflects on what she’s learned by creating a recovery Instagram account and how her recovery has evolved in the time since she did. Highlighting the key benefits and challenges of participating in an online recovery community, she offers insight into both the rewarding and tricky parts. She emphasizes the importance of protecting and prioritizing recovery—online and off—and leaves us with practical strategies for others trying to heal in a social media world.

The Unique Roles Mothers Play While Facing Eating Disorders—Personally or Through Their Children

Mother’s Day celebrates the special role of moms and all that they do to support their families every day. While caring for others, moms facing an eating disorder experience a variety of unique challenges, whether caring for a child with an eating disorder or focusing on their own recovery journey.

Episode description:

Abby Anderson is a business school graduate who works a corporate job and is passionate about mental health, yoga, and personal development. Diagnosed with anorexia in the summer of 2018, she has experienced a series of ups and downs worth noting to anyone with an eating disorder or disordered eating.

In this episode of Peace Meal, Abby tells us about the process of her eating disorder recovery, including the shifts in motivation she has experienced during it. She begins with the rock-bottom moment she first sought help. Exhausted and physically depleted, she recalls being highly motivated to make a change then.

But, as is typical in recovery, her motivation ebbed and flowed as time went on, and she learned why healing is often described as a nonlinear process. “Your body catches up a lot before your mind does,” she says.

When it comes to seeking high-level care for an eating disorder, concerns about school should never be a barrier for anyone, whether they are children, adolescents, college students, or adults.