Before you sail into fears about food, eating, bingeing, purging or compulsively eating this holiday season, I invite you to look at what really helps you develop through your eating disorder. If you pay attention to the nonfood areas of your life, you may be surprised at how well you can survive the coming holidays.

Holiday Challenges: The usual suspects

Yes, holidays are a challenge. The presence of family can be triggering. The absence of family can be triggering. The pressures of your own internal fantasies about what holidays should be and how they actually are may be strikingly different pictures. This can bring up anxiety and deep sorrow.

Give to hungry as part of eating disorder recovery philosophy

Moved by my Thanksgiving post about how people struggling with eating disorders might get as well as give benefits by helping to provide food for hungry people in this country and around the world, Barb Oakes, a Heifer International Volunteer Coordinator in Illinois, wrote with a broader suggestion.

She added a new dimension to the food-giving experience. My idea reached the level of giving food, time, or money to programs that provided for hungry people in the town where you live or the town where you were born.

You can help yourself by helping others this Thanksgiving. Use the meaning of Thanksgiving as a recovery tool and discover real benefits to you.

Thanksgiving: Give Instead of Binge

Question 1: How can I get through Thanksgiving without bingeing or restricting?

Thanksgiving is upon us. What do you need to understand and care for yourself around food over the holidays? Ask your questions about your eating and food concerns in the comments.