Sarah’s story For several years Sarah’s family had been concerned about her dieting and obsessive exercising. Finally, Sarah went away for a semester in Spain and came home with less than 90 pounds on her 5-foot, one-inch frame. Her family gave her two choices: get outpatient treatment for an eating disorder or be sent to an in-patient program. “I was finally ready to get help,” says Sarah, who now works as a registered nurse. “I was so exhausted by the way I was living that it was a relief.” Sarah started counseling with Dressing, working on the underlying issues that led to her eating disorder. She learned how to keep exercise and eating in perspective. “She did a lot of work to get things figured out,” Dressing says. “She’s freed up from her eating disorder and really gotten her life in balance.” Sarah said she approaches life in an entirely different way today. She and her fiancé are planning a spring wedding and she has the energy to focus on her life and career in a way she couldn’t when obsessively concentrating on the shape of her body. “Life is so much more relaxed. I can enjoy people and have meaningful conversations,” she says. “I have a job to care about people and I have the energy to be able to do that.” “We all need to take care of our bodies and make sure we are fueling them with a nutritional balance of foods,” Dressing says. “We don’t need to let the way our body curves or doesn’t curve determine how we feel about ourselves or how we live our lives.” SFW
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