The distinction between shyness and introversion was really interesting to me! I am a shy person - when I was a teenager I had horrific social anxiety, but after years of challenging it I'm just a bit anxious around new people and in new situations. But I'm not introverted at all, I love meeting up with friends, I love my voluntary work which involves public speaking (even if I shake the whole way through, lol), I look forward to meeting new people when I start college courses and so on. I always through I was just weird, but the thing about introversion being the lack of interest in socialising rather than a fear of it makes sense.

The article about dieting and loss of bone mass didn't really seem like anything new. I mean, I know many people who have recovered much of their lost bone density after anorexia, from teenagers right up to people in their 40s, but this article was focusing on post-menopausal women. If bone density is strongly related to hormones like oestrogen that makes sense. So I hope no one reads the title of that and gets unnecessarily scared!

I loved the article on how psychotherapy changes the brain. That's why I'm training to be a therapist despite being a nerd :)

Carrie - this actually has more to do with an older post (the one about the Psychiatric Times article suggesting "palliative care" for chronic AN) but I thought I'd post it where you're more likely to see it. Do you know why AN patients are never sent to permanent inpatient hospitals, the way chronic schizophrenics can be sent permanently to "state"? It's a grim life, for sure, but it sure would beat "palliative care," and perhaps if someone were forced to maintain a healthy weight for a period of time, they could begin to want their recovery. I'm asking because you seem to know a lot about treatment/policy/mental health parity issues.

Anon,

Mainly? My guess is cost. They really don't hospitalize people with schizophrenia long-term like they used to. The advent of modern psychopharmacology basically emptied mental hospitals as patients were discharged en masse. It wasn't all bad (the drugs were probably more effective than the treatments people were receiving), but it also withdrew crucial support.

As well, EDs are generally viewed as "choices." I've faced the idea that I wasn't recovering because I wasn't ready or wasn't doing the work or whatever. I would choose recovery when I was ready. Weight restoration wouldn't help unless I was "ready" to recover.

Just my two cents.

Love your flexibility in having your smorgasbord on Monday!