Adversity2Advocacy


I have two goals with my advocacy work: one is to bring about improvements in the treatment of patients, the other is to gather other parents to do the same. I really feel the current state of treatment that most families meet is unacceptably poor and that the best hope to improve that is us, parents, allying together to encourage, support, and sometimes DEMAND improvements.

My inspiration for this does not come solely from my own experience and is not limited to eating disorders: this has been the story for countless social and medical movements. Autism and childhood cancer come to mind first but there are so many I really have to think a minute to think of one that truly was not. 

So, it is a special honor to be recognized by the A2A Alliance. I'm psyched to be part of the network and to support and join with other activists. I think eating disorder advocacy needs desperately to join with others - we're in a cup-de-sac of our own insularity. It isn't just that ED advocates don't feel comfortable allying with other serious mental illness advocates or other health and social causes: the antipathy is mutual. I've been astounded to be rebuffed by parent groups and other advocacy groups who held just as prejudiced and antiquated views of eating disorders as the general public but, I would argue, with much less excuse.

My work is meaningless without others. Everything I do has to be done on behalf of and in concert with others. So, friends, help me expand the reach of my advocacy by reading my new profile on A2A and then "liking" A3A's Facebook page. Doing so means showing a lot of people that there are eating disorder advocates and we want to step up and want to have a voice. It only takes a moment. While you're in the mood to support advocacy, subscribe to the A2A Twitter feed, too.

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