So much of the literature that exists about body image treats it as almost entirely intrapersonal ("How do I perceive my body?"), but after attending a talk about sexuality and embodiment, I've been considering the ways in which it is also interpersonal ("How do I experience my body as being perceived, appreciated, and reflected back to me by people I trust?"). The talk, like so many on sexuality, excluded asexual spectrum (aspec) experiences and prompted many brainstorms abo

I sat down to write a blog post about body gratitude. After stumbling into what felt like a genuine sense of appreciation for my body recently, I thought I had a new, edgy idea that might help other disabled folks access the elusive concept sans the toxic positivity usually used to lead us to the conclusion that our bodies aren't actually as bad as we thought they were. Since I didn't have to repeat a bunch of affirmations in the mirror or work particularly hard to find this

I have a lot of student loan debt. In my process of decision-making about how much to pay off, when, and what the consequences of all of my options might be, I noticed a familiar grief, a flavor I hadn't felt since the first time I got serious about committing to eating disorder recovery. I realized that in both scenarios, Present Me was paying the price for decisions that were adaptive to Past Me, for the benefit of Future Me. Past Me didn't accumulate debt or engage with an

As my co-author and I wrapped up the section of our book that challenges self-regulation as a gold-standard, universal mental health goal, we both admitted that we felt nervous about how it would be received in the current cultural climate. A few months later, I came across a social media post from an eating disorder clinician straight out of early-2000s-era diet culture suggesting that while eating when you're distressed might make you feel better temporarily, it's not a fix

I often describe the first round of recovery ever from my eating disorder as "basic." That is to say because all the psychoeducation and the skills and the conceptualizing of why I was engaging in these behaviors was brand new to me, and it rocked my socks off. I did what they told me to do. I followed the meal plan, I journaled about my emotions, I put body image affirmation post-its on my mirror, and so on. And it "worked." I don't put quotes around that because I inevitabl

When neurodivergent people in eating disorder recovery talk about exercise, the narrative that we are more susceptible to becoming addicted to it than neurotypical peers might be. "Be careful," we're warned, because adrenaline, endorphins, vestibular input, dopamine, and emotion regulation are all things that movement provides, and becoming dependent on it to self-medicate might mean overdoing it. If you're sensing a tone of cynicism here, you're onto me. To be fair, this exp

For many people, recovery from an eating disorder is a long and winding road, full of self-discovery and unlearning harmful beliefs. But what happens when, after years of work, you realize that the recovery you fought so hard for was actually another form of masking? When the version of healing you were praised for was, in reality, compliance-based and centered around neurotypical norms? The Realization: Unmasking Recovery Many late-identified autistic individuals come to und

There is a tremendous amount of stigma around identifying as "gifted" as an adult. If you're thinking, "oh, poor gifted kids, must be so hard to be smart," I get it. It was that attitude, that kept this key piece of my self-understanding at arm's length for over 30 years. The fear of being perceived as conceited or—similar to how I felt in the early days of trying on my ADHD and autism identities—just plain wrong is a common reason adults who are "twice exceptional" don't eve

For those of us who are autistic and have an interest-driven nervous system, "special interests" (SpIns) are not just hobbies—they’re integral to our identity, offering comfort, focus, and a sense of mastery. An eating disorder may become a SpIn in and of itself or it may arise tangentially through other SpIns that either necessitate heightened awareness of one's body, eating, and movement habits, or are just muddied by the messaging of diet culture and involve a body ideal,