I have struggled with binge eating at night for most of my life. As with a lot of others, the hardest period of time to avoid binge eating is at night. Over the last year, I started getting serious about finding a solution to my binge eating addiction. In this article, I will share with you what I have learned throughout this journey of learning how to stop binge eating at night.

I recently described the mental health benefits of surrounding yourself with a tribe of friends. However, how do we know who belongs in that tribe? Sometimes the people around us can be toxic or perhaps just not supportive. I’ve taken years to carefully craft my circle, so I wanted to share some of the criteria I use.

Celebrity suicide can take a toll on those who are depressed and that happened to me this week with the suicide of Kate Spade and the suicide of Anthony Bourdain, reported just this morning. I can say I was upset by Kate Spade’s suicide (particularly the details, which I won’t discuss here) earlier in the week and then this morning, when I learned of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide (not an official ruling at this time), it felt like adding insult to injury. The celebrity suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain have actually worsened my depression.

These days, using the word trigger will probably elicit a few reactions: eye rolls, groans, and insults. Yes, there are people that take the word trigger seriously when used in conversations about mental illness, but, for the most part, it has become a derogatory thing that people use sarcastically to insinuate that people are too politically correct or soft. The negative side effect of that is that people who talk about mental illness triggers are also regarded with the same disregard when triggers can actually have serious impacts on people with mental health disorders.

It's important to turn negative self-talk into positive self-talk, especially when you tell yourself things like: "You are a failure!" "You are useless!" "I hate you!" These are things that I hear regularly from myself. "Nobody will ever love you!" "You will never amount to anything!" The voice I use when I speak to myself when I am depressed is not exactly positive. But it can be, and there are ways that I can help ease the process of switching negative self-talk to positive.

We can do things to help prevent depression relapse. I’ve relapsed with my depression more times than I can even count. I was first hospitalized for depression when I was 12. The second time I was 25. My last hospitalization was a little over five years ago, and I have had a few episodes of major relapse in between those hospitalizations. There’s a good chance that I could relapse into a major episode, even one requiring hospitalization, again. While this might sound depressing and discouraging, I choose to believe that this awareness allows me to safeguard against future major relapses.

My schizoaffective anxiety is worse in summer when it gets hot. That really stinks because summer is supposed to be the best time of the year. It wasn't always this way--it didn't start happening until a few years ago. Here's how I cope now that my anxiety is worse in summer.

Going vegan in eating disorder (ED) recovery can be helpful—or a detriment--depending on the mindset of each individual and the factors of his or her environment. There are many reasons people choose the vegan lifestyle, running the gamut from nutrition to ethics, and veganism as a standalone practice neither heals nor causes an eating disorder. So taking into account all the different variables and nuances at play, whether going vegan in ED recovery will be helpful—or harmful—is contingent on your motives for adopting a vegan diet or lifestyle, and how it manifests in your eating habits.

Do you know how to explain posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experiences to your doctor? If you have difficulty speaking with your primary care provider about your PTSD, here are some ideas to help you explain how PTSD impacts you. Many people assume that primary care providers have experience working with individuals with PTSD, but often, primary care providers have a general knowledge of PTSD without any concrete understanding of how it impacts the daily life and health of their patients. This lack of knowledge is especially problematic when someone with PTSD avoids discussing his or her mental health with his or her medical provider. It is important to learn how to explain PTSD and its impact on your life to your doctor.