A Hunger Artist

Gratitude

Recovered Attitudes to Food: Wider Horizons of Gratitude

Emily T. Troscianko on December 31, 2025

Personal Perspective: Recovery from an eating disorder can lead to a new state of stable self-regulation—and protection from future regret.

Personal Perspective: Recovery from an eating disorder can lead to a new state of stable self-regulation—and protection from future regret.

Anorexia Nervosa

Recovered Attitudes to Food: The Simplicity of Appreciation

Emily T. Troscianko on December 30, 2025

Personal Perspective: I counter the rarity of testimony about life long after recovery from anorexia by outlining how my attitudes to food contrast with both anorexic and socially prevalent patterns.

Personal Perspective: I counter the rarity of testimony about life long after recovery from anorexia by outlining how my attitudes to food contrast with both anorexic and socially prevalent patterns.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexic Attitudes to Food: Caring “Too Much,” Not Too Little

Emily T. Troscianko on December 30, 2025

Contrary to common belief, the anorexic life is highly food-centric, as observed in other food-deprived animals but with more intricately experience-privileging forms in humans.

Contrary to common belief, the anorexic life is highly food-centric, as observed in other food-deprived animals but with more intricately experience-privileging forms in humans.

Motivation

Using Body Weight Targets to Help With Anorexia Recovery

Emily T. Troscianko on September 25, 2025

Bodyweight targets as process goals can encourage a swift and sure recovery from anorexia.

Bodyweight targets as process goals can encourage a swift and sure recovery from anorexia.

Anorexia Nervosa

The Paradoxical Damage Done by Target Weights for Anorexia

Emily T. Troscianko on September 24, 2025

Completing a roundup of reasons not to use target weights, we explore the pressures to do so and their paradoxically costly consequences.

Completing a roundup of reasons not to use target weights, we explore the pressures to do so and their paradoxically costly consequences.

Anorexia Nervosa

The Faulty and Fearful Logic of Target Weights for Anorexia

Emily T. Troscianko on September 23, 2025

The use of target weights is often about seeking the anxiolytic effects of the numerical—and so is also a collusion with the eating disorder.

The use of target weights is often about seeking the anxiolytic effects of the numerical—and so is also a collusion with the eating disorder.

Eating Disorders

Why Target Weights Usually Hinder Anorexia Recovery

Emily T. Troscianko on September 18, 2025

Bodyweight targets have been part of mainstream treatment for anorexia for decades. Norms are slowly changing, but this practice is still widespread. I explore why it is misguided.

Bodyweight targets have been part of mainstream treatment for anorexia for decades. Norms are slowly changing, but this practice is still widespread. I explore why it is misguided.

Eating Disorders

Getting Metaphorical With Feedback Loops

Emily T. Troscianko on July 3, 2025

What happens when we choose our favourite metaphor for cyclical change and run with it?

What happens when we choose our favourite metaphor for cyclical change and run with it?

Eating Disorders

The Magic of Positive Feedback Loops in Recovery

Emily T. Troscianko on July 2, 2025

What can the systems theory distinction between positive and negative feedback tell us about how recovery succeeds?

What can the systems theory distinction between positive and negative feedback tell us about how recovery succeeds?

Career

Nonconformist Coping Strategies in Treatment and Prevention

Emily T. Troscianko on April 8, 2025

We round off this series on taking the drabness out of mental healthcare with reflections on experiential experimenting and a new take on “first do no harm”.

We round off this series on taking the drabness out of mental healthcare with reflections on experiential experimenting and a new take on “first do no harm”.

Eating Disorders

Solutions to Disempowering Drab: Exploration and Inoculation

Emily T. Troscianko on April 4, 2025

What would change if we made prevention of conditions like eating disorders less deadly dull?

What would change if we made prevention of conditions like eating disorders less deadly dull?

Eating Disorders

From Standardized to Individualized in Eating Disorder Care

Emily T. Troscianko on April 2, 2025

What might healthcare for eating disorders look like if we stopped insisting on so much standardization?

What might healthcare for eating disorders look like if we stopped insisting on so much standardization?

Eating Disorders

Why It’s a Problem That Healthcare Is So Drab

Emily T. Troscianko on March 30, 2025

What goes wrong when the desire for personal agency and identity meets the beige of institutionalized mental healthcare?

What goes wrong when the desire for personal agency and identity meets the beige of institutionalized mental healthcare?

Eating Disorders

When Healthcare Disempowers: The Problem of Personal Agency

Emily T. Troscianko on March 27, 2025

How the good intentions that abound in (mental) healthcare can slide into disempowerment of the individuals who access it.

How the good intentions that abound in (mental) healthcare can slide into disempowerment of the individuals who access it.

Sleep

Eating Disorders and Sleep: What Changes in Recovery

Emily T. Troscianko on December 31, 2024

Recovery from an eating disorder brings both expected unease and unexpected ease, including in the domain of sleep. Surfing both is crucial to recovering successfully.

Recovery from an eating disorder brings both expected unease and unexpected ease, including in the domain of sleep. Surfing both is crucial to recovering successfully.

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders and Sleep: Workarounds People Find

Emily T. Troscianko on December 29, 2024

Quick fixes like meal timings, alcohol, caffeine, and exercise offer dangerously temporary solutions to the sleep problems created by an eating disorder.

Quick fixes like meal timings, alcohol, caffeine, and exercise offer dangerously temporary solutions to the sleep problems created by an eating disorder.

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders and Sleep: What Goes Wrong

Emily T. Troscianko on December 28, 2024

Eating disorders can interfere with good-quality sleep and exacerbate or prolong the disorder. Learn how this happens and why sleep matters.

Eating disorders can interfere with good-quality sleep and exacerbate or prolong the disorder. Learn how this happens and why sleep matters.

Ethics and Morality

The Benefits of Writing Versus the Ethics of Publishing

Emily T. Troscianko on September 30, 2024

A new “pre-publication study” suggests that separating “Do I want to write this book?” from “Should I publish it?” could be an important principle for the literary world.

A new “pre-publication study” suggests that separating “Do I want to write this book?” from “Should I publish it?” could be an important principle for the literary world.

Ethics and Morality

New Study Asks the Question: Should This Book Be Published?

Emily T. Troscianko on September 29, 2024

My prior research findings on the effects of reading narratives about eating disorders made it important to ask difficult questions about the one I’d just written.

My prior research findings on the effects of reading narratives about eating disorders made it important to ask difficult questions about the one I’d just written.

Eating Disorders

Ethical Questions About an Anorexia Recovery Memoir

Emily T. Troscianko on September 27, 2024

Personal Perspective: In 2015, I started writing a book based on this blog. It became a recovery memoir, but my prior research had raised serious ethical questions about the genre.

Personal Perspective: In 2015, I started writing a book based on this blog. It became a recovery memoir, but my prior research had raised serious ethical questions about the genre.