Moods, Meds and Meals

an eating disorder recovery and mental health blog

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Author: Cara Lisette

Mental health and lifestyle blogger. Tattooed, travelling, feminist, pink haired, pyjama wearing cat lady.
June 10, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Lies My Eating Disorder Told Me

May 28, 2021August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

10 Things to Know Before Starting Therapy

May 12, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Restaurants and Calorie Labelling – Helpful or Harmful?

April 29, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

How to Cope with Bad Body Image

April 11, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Why Eating Disorder Treatment Must Improve

April 5, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Five Things to Remember When Your Eating Disorder Calls

March 15, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

My Anorexia Treatment: A Round Up

March 9, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Goodbye Eating Disorders Service

February 13, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Eating Disorders: The Grass Isn’t Greener

January 28, 2021August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

What I Mean When I Say I’m Tired

January 16, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

How to Support Somebody with an Eating Disorder

January 1, 2021August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

10 Eating Disorder Recovery Wins

December 24, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Eating Disorders and Recovery Guilt

December 19, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Not Everybody with an Eating Disorder…

December 1, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Managing Christmas with an Eating Disorder

November 28, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Do You Really Miss Your Eating Disorder?

November 18, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

How to Separate Anorexia from Your Identity

November 7, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Grief and Eating Disorder Recovery

October 24, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Eating Disorders: Are You Sick Enough?

September 19, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

How it Feels to be a Nurse and a Patient

August 27, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Anorexia Symptoms Nobody Talks About

July 29, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

The ‘War on Obesity’ and the Battle Against Anorexia

July 24, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Bipolar Disorder is not a Punchline

July 18, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

10 Lessons I’ve Learnt in Recovery

July 4, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

25 Affirmations to Improve Body Image

June 19, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Anorexia Recovery: Onwards and Upwards

June 13, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

What Does it Mean to be Healthy?

May 29, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind?

May 9, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

I Miss You, Anorexia

May 2, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Hidden Challenges in Eating Disorder Recovery

April 25, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

How to Make the Most of Virtual Mental Health Care

April 20, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

30 Things I Want to Do Post-Lockdown

April 15, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Pushing Past Quasi-Recovery

April 4, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Anorexia Recovery: Cara vs Yoghurt

April 2, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Coping with an Eating Disorder During a Pandemic

March 7, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

The Anorexia Recovery Rollercoaster

March 2, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Eating Disorders Q&A

February 23, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

How Anorexia Tricks You

February 17, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Day Patient Update: Checkpoint

January 30, 2020August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

Relapse and Mental Health Advocacy

January 19, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

A Week With Me: Day Patient Edition

January 17, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Anorexia Recovery: Two Steps Forward

January 2, 2020August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

My Recovery Journey: I Am Stuck

December 19, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Recovery is a Full Time Job

December 11, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Calories Aren’t The Enemy

November 17, 2019August 18, 2022 Cara Lisette

Top Tips for Starting a Mental Health Blog

October 25, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Anorexia and the Unicorn Syndrome

October 22, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

Brain Dump: Starting Anorexia Treatment

October 19, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

I Am Done: Breaking Up with Anorexia

October 13, 2019August 17, 2022 Cara Lisette

The Unglamorous Side of Anorexia

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  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Eating Disorders
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • obsessive compulsive disorder
I met my therapist today who I liked so much. Unsurprisingly I have now been diagnosed with perinatal obsessive compulsive disorder (I’ve written more about how I came to this diagnosis on my blog today). So it’s exactly a year (as of yesterday) since I found out I was pregnant. It was honestly extremely surprising because we weren’t expecting it quite so quickly, and it was also the day my EMDR training got approved which I knew that I wouldn’t be able to finish before going on maternity leave, so it was a day full of emotions! I honestly felt quite excited but absolutely petrified. We’d just put our house on the market, I knew there was the approaching chance I’d be getting redeployed - there was a lot going on. I also know that miscarriage rates are pretty high and with my history of how bad I’ve treated my body I didn’t really allow myself to believe it was real until we had our 8 week scan. At that point he was barely more than a teeny little shrimp with a heartbeat. I had some bleeding two days before my 12 week scan which was awful so we were prepared for the worst, but he was very happy in there and already looking like a tiny person. Hi pocket friends 🩷 Thanks for stopping by everyone 🩷 I always felt compelled to act on what anorexia told me because the consequences didn’t feel worth it if I didn’t - I’d feel panicky, sad and ashamed. But I vividly remember my therapist saying to me “nobody has a gun to your head stopping you from putting the spoon in your mouth”. It was direct but powerful. He was right. Nobody was forcing me to behave in ways that aligned with being ill. I had the choice whether to listen or not. So gradually I stopped listening. I’ve had a couple of treat days in the park recently which have been nice and it’s been good to enjoy the sun without it being too dangerous to take Beau out in it. It’s okay to take medication!! I know it can cause some shame and worry, and I know there’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there about it. But it’s okay to do what you need to do to stay alive. Postpartum mental illness is such a rollercoaster. If I’m not sad I’m hypomanic, if I’m not hypomanic I’m anxious, just in endless loop over and over again. I feel like I can’t settle the seesaw. Postpartum mental illness is something people consider to be so shameful but that shouldn’t be the case. You’re more likely to struggle with it if you have pre-existing difficulties, buts it’s an extremely vulnerable time for all women and can strike anyone.
Posts by CaraLisette
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