Can Blogs Help With Eating Disorders?
There has been much in the news about previous sufferers of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have turned their experiences into blogs to help current sufferers to overcome these debilitating disorders. The crux of the story is “can these help sufferers or should they be seeking professional assistance”. The answer is very much that both are useful and best if used together. For people battling very complex personal issues like eating disorders, addiction, or trauma, the idea of having a place to go to see what other people experience can be a very helpful therapeutic process. The use of these blogs could be seen as “normalising” their condition. By which I mean, that the sufferer can take solace in the fact that they are not the only person suffering in this way and that there is a way out of their condition. This can have a great impact on the sufferer’s state of mind and can be a very positive component to their treatment and recovery.
These blogs, however, are not therapy. For people to get over significant conditions like eating disorders, there is a need for professional intervention as well. These professionals would need to have an empathy for the client’s situation but maintain the distance needed in order to help provide the appropriate safe space for the client to get over these very difficult and dangerous conditions.
