The Eating Disorder Institute

•

The Eating Disorder Institute •

Science-based approach to eating disorder treatment

Research repository of available
options with emphasis on the
Homeodynamic Recovery Method.

with the fabulous Ragen Chastain.

with the fabulous Ragen Chastain.

BASICS

  • These are 12 signs you likely have an eating disorder. Read More

  • Ever wondered how HDRM came to be? Read More.

  • The Homeodynamic Recovery Method is a science-based treatment for adults primarily based in community. See whether its strengths and weaknesses match your own goals for recovery. Read More.

  • HDRM has equivalencies in Family-Based Treatment, a protocol primarily designed for children and the only science-based option with evidence of its efficacy. See what overlaps and what doesn't. Read More.

  • Just a few of the most common questions that get asked starting a recovery effort with HDRM. Read More.

  • Launching the new protocol on EDI for Anicca Managed Active Care (AMAC). Read More.

  • A basic explanation and external links to detailed descriptions of the numerous other science-based treatments available today. Read More.

March 28, 2025

Part Three

Mothering and Recovery. Part four available April 4.

What’s New

  • Getting Ready for a New Year

    READ

  • Trauma-informed Care

    READ

  • New! Weigh-Ins

    READ

  • Updated: Help! My Jeans Don't Fit

    READ

  • Updated: Night Eating Syndrome

    READ

Testimonials

  • I just wanted to drop you a line and say thank you so much for those forums and for dealing with the topic of EH and overshoot. I am now almost 6 years into recovery (no relapses). I thought you might be interested in how my journey went: I was a low BMI for most of the 20 years of AN.......ended up gaining weight for 3 years and overshooting and now remodelled back down. My blood sugar crashing continue to improve......I can't yet keep up with normal people yet or do longer things like hiking.....but my body is still changing shape and improving and at this rate I am pretty sure by year 7 or 8 I will probably be normal! (long haul after 20 years!) My bone density went from hip lumbar almost osteoporotic (and that was one year into recovery) to almost lower end of normal. The ED unit that I saw said it wasn't possible and were shocked they have kept my scans. They also put my weight journey into graph form and the boss was going to show it to the team and discuss overshoot etc. My muscle strength blows me away......I am so different to how I used to be. So anyway, thanks so much for all your support. I don't think I could have overshot or got the people helping me to support me without what you did.

    —Jeannie

  • I only wanted to say that I have learned such incredibly valuable life lessons from your site that I wanted to thank you. I cannot agree with your mission statement more and you can count me as one of the, I expect, many people who found out what was going on with me through your website when dr's and gynaecologists failed. (After unfortunately my own experience of misdiagnosis (PCOS) and no knowledge at all by multiple medical specialists about the actual thing going on (Hypothalamic Amenorrhea). The simple cure of eating more and quitting exercise instead of birth control or hormone treatment.) Thank you for changing my outlook on being healthy and fit and my judgement of being fat. Your site made me a kinder person.

    —Mary

  • Doctors said without drastic changes, I would have 2 to 3 weeks left to live...[they] gave me until the next day to think about everything and then tell them how and if I wanted to continue treatment...I took a look at your site...I cannot really say that it was an "Aha"-moment. I don't know exactly how it happened, but when I went to bed in the early morning, I had new hope, new determination and new motivation. What's strange is that the guidelines are actually not different from what my care team was telling me..But something about the way you explain things, how you write and talk just broke down the walls I had built around me.

    —Julia

  • I'm coming up to year four. Turns out I've actually remained stable in my weight since April 2015...It feels genuinne, too - my intake feels very natural and I'm genuinely shocked that the number hasn't budged. I know that this doesn't necessarily mean it won't change ever again, and certainly doesn't mean I will taper - but it's about the first thing that's happened almost according to plan in ages...I graduate in July. I'm set for a first class honours degree..It's a good time in recovery and when I started getting better, I never thought I'd get here even in a million years.

    — Eleanor

  • This type of recovery is such a gift, even though it feels like being dragged through hell by the hair! Spending this past year with reduced mobility, swelling and pain has forced me to slow down and take stock. It is the first time in my life that I have not been rushing around filling in time doing anything to avoid the nagging sense of self hatred. I have had to learn to sit with emotions and let them take their course even though often it was extremely uncomfortable. I have had to find the courage to go outside in a body I don't recognize and somehow I have managed to find value in myself despite being bigger than I ever thought I would be.

    — Pauline

  • My recovery took a year-long detour into relapse - but I think it might have been a good thing in the end, because it encouraged me to seek full, in-person treatment. Since last summer I've had a full team [in place], including a psychologist, psychiatrist, nutritionist, and internist. They're all trained in the Maudsley method, have a great track record of helping people achieve stable (and weight-neutral) remission and are aware of and impressed with your site.

    — Mary

  • Thank you SO much! I know you've heard this many times before, but you have truly saved my life. I'm 56 yearrs old and have suffered with anorexia for 39 years. I found your site several years ago and finally something made sense...It clicked. I want to enter my old age robust and healthy...that is a dream I've always had and I know now it will become a reality because of you. I'm a normal weight for the first time in almost 40 years!

    — Joanne

  • I just started a day program (3 fulltime days a week) for anorexia treatment/weight restoriation this week. Your post about what to expect during the phases of recovery answered all of my questions, concerns, misapprehensions and silly-but-insomnia-causing irrational fears better than anyone at this clinic so far - and it's a freaking well-run clinic, haha. Thank you. Thank you so so much for the detail, clinical and psychological insight and fact, and COMPASSION that you put into this website, and that post.

    — Bridget

  • I wanted to let you know that I wouldn't have made it without your help. I bet it's pretty exhausting sometimes, to answer the same questions over and over again but you need to know that you are an angel. You really saved my life. Fortunately not physically, but you gave me back a real life. And I don't want to know where ED would have sent me...considering how deep I was in my ED just some months in!

    —Veronika

  • Never in my life had I imagined a topic so close and dear to my heart, a struggle so personal and hidden in my life, to be spoken about, and analyzed in such a brilliant, clear and concise, relatable manner. Your site, which I am only scraping the surface of, after reading for a few hours, is changing my entire perspective on eating, food and my brain. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    — Jennifer

  • I just wanted to send a THANK YOU beyond words for how this has helped me...I was looking for information on probiotics and somehow I came across your site and am SO VERY THANKFUL that I did! I'm 37 and have cycled through anorexia for far too many years and am so very ashamed...It was especially helpful to read the stages of recovery and how many calories are needed. And to have the "extreme hunger" explained helped SO much too. I would try to explain it to treatment professionals, who just didn't "get" it by saying, I'm full but hungry at the same time.

    — Catherine

  • When I first started to look for help online about six months ago, every single website was of the "scared straight" nature...This put me more or less in a state of mild hysteria...I could find zero resources as to how I might get to a better place. Then, through some miracle of googling exactly the right combination of words...I found that many of my behaviors (including some that I thought were healthy!) were classifiable incarnations of my eating disorder. I don't quite know how to put into words how valuable it was to me to learn about water retention during the recovery process

    — Sam

  • I recently started day care. I just wanted to let you know that we had a mini group session with the dietician today. She was speaking about how we work with a meal plan and then she went on to specifically recommend your site and the HDRM method. I almost jumped out of my seat!! I was so excited to hear her endorse your site to the group. She told everyone how the meal plan is just a minimum, how people on your site had eaten to hunger cues and done so well on it, she talked about set point theory - she was so much behind everything on your site.

    — Zoe

  • I just want to thank you for your site. It has given me the strength I needed to do this. It's also so esthetically pleasing and your writing style is pleasant and real and enjoyable to read. You have helped me so much and I am eternally grateful. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

    — Avalon