Hey everybody, happy Thursday!
And today's question actually comes from my Patreon account, and if you don't know what that is, you can click over here and check it out.
But someone asked their question after I'd already made my monthly videos and so I told her I would answer it right away on my Thursday one.
So let's get into it! The question is:
"Can you talk about preventing ED relapse in college?" ED meaning 'eating disorder'
"I'm considering getting a dietitian because I've been slipping a bit, and my therapist recommended it,"
"How do you know when it's 'bad' enough to get some extra support?"
"Or is it a good idea to prevent further relapse?"
"I'm stuck, because dietitians are usually not covered by insurance and if I don't need it, then I don't want to pay for it. Any thoughts?"
I think this is a common concern and a common worry for people, is "how much help do I really need?"
Because everything costs more money, trust me, I'm just as aware of that as anybody else,
I see my own therapist and I pay out-of-pocket, a huge co-pay for her, she's 70 dollars,
which I know isn't ton of money, but that ends up adding up at the end of every month and those are things that we have to factor in when we have a budget, right?
And if we don't have insurance that covers, 'cause that covers, like, half of the cost of my therapist,
if you don't have insurance that covers the cost of a dietitian, because a lot do not,
what do we do?
In all honesty, if we have an eating disorder, like this person is talking about, and that 'eating disorder voice' is still alive and well within us,
then sadly, we're not going to be able to trust ourselves as to when we need help.
We're going to have to rely on other professionals and maybe even other supportive people in our life,
like friends or family, who know about our recovery process and are in support of it.
We're going to have to trust in them, so if your therapist, it sounds like this person's therapist, is saying that you needed it, and they're kind of recommending it,
then I would go for it.
If the 'eating disorder voice' is kind of there, but we're able to brush it off, we're able to push it away, make it go away,
then, I want you to consider this and I want you to think about this.
Do you find yourself struggling to fight it off sometimes? Do you find yourself 'slipping'? Like the person said, "I've been slipping a bit."
Do you find yourself either sneaking extra food, or hiding food? Or skipping snacks or skipping add-ons?
Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with the amount of food that you're supposed to eat?
Or do you find yourself overeating?
More than you're supposed and more than you know your body actually needs and is asking for?
That's when we need to see a dietitian, because a therapist can only help us with the root of the reason our eating disorder exists.
And by going through that kind of, icky, nitty-gritty stuff, we can actually make the eating disorder go away, because we won't need it anymore,
but in the meantime, it can be hard to know how much to eat, intuitive eating, that I've talked about in other videos,
is something that happens, like, way down the line of treatment, because,
when we are struggling with an eating disorder, we can't actually be intuitive because we're not in touch with our body,
we're not listening to what our body's telling us and we haven't been listening, potentially for years and years and years.
So we have to trust in a meal plan, we have to trust in a dietitian or a nutritionist to tell us what we need to eat, and that helps us keep on track.
Does that make sense? I hope that that makes sense.
And I know it's hard to know when we need extra help, but honestly,
dietitians usually will need to see you frequently at first, and then we may not have to see them more than once a month.
So consider that, also if you're worried about cost,
Ask the dietitian if they work on a sliding scale, or if they take any insurances, or if they offer a superbill, call your insurance and see if it's covered,
there are a lot of things that we can do to make sure that the treatment we need is covered and affordable for us,
and maybe even ask your therapist if they know anybody who does pro-bono work, or out of a different clinic, where they offer really low cost services.
Is there anything available like that?
The message that I want to get across is that if any of us need help out there, if any of you are struggling and worried about the cost,
and able to afford it in your monthly budget, there are still treatment options available, sometimes you just have to ask.
And it never hurts to ask, I don't get offended when people ask if I work on a sliding scale,
and everybody does to some extent, it may still not fit your budget but they may have some other referrals for you so that you can make it affordable.
Okay? I hope you found this helpful, leave in the comments how you afforded your treatment, and how you knew that you needed more help,
because that's just my opinion, but each of you have your own, individual experiences
and that's what honestly makes this channel so amazing, and the Kinion community so wonderful,
is that together, with our powers combined, it gives us the best result.
So leave in the comments, give this video a like, and I'm not done, you guys, whoa,
I also got some mail, and I never do mail hauls on here, so this is going to be really quick but I just wanted to give a shoutout to:
Callie, I got a letter from her, and I won't read the letters, obviously, because, you know, it's personal,
but I got a bunch of cute little things that says, "fall in love with yourself in this moment", I already put some up on a board in my office.
And this one is a big, long, letter, that she typed out, and I was really grateful for her sending it to me,
and also with a bunch of questions, and that's from Kat, so thank you Kat for that.
And the last one came along with all of those little, cute things that I put up was from Erin, so thank you Erin.
And my last package from Megan, sorry, I've got a lot of things going on, you guys, I'm real excited, are you ready?
Look at this! Can you see it?
And there's a bracelet, it was hanging from it, I don't know if you saw that.
But look, it's "Healthy minds, healthy bodies", I love it, and look it says, "Life, hope, freedom, worth, strength, courage, support and safety".
Now I'm going to put this up, and it says, "Community" on the flowers, I'm going to put this up in my office today
and she made me a beautiful bracelet, can you see it, can you see it?
I love it so much, and there's two more bracelets, you see these? I'm doing a Grace Helbig.
And a beautiful card - so thank you so much Megan, thank you all for sending me things, I love getting your gifts and your letters in the mail, so keep them coming,
if you're wondering what my PO box is, it's in the description of all of my videos,
and I will see you, (what day is it?), on Monday!
And Friday! I'm going to have a livestream, the time is TBD so follow me on Twitter to find more about that,
but I will see you on Friday on YouNow, okay?
Bye!