In this episode, I am joined by father and daughter Mike and Mary Polan. After “an extremely long and painful process with many twists and turns, detours and crashes along the way,” Mary recovered from a 10 year battle with anorexia, which nearly took her life. Mike’s personal experience supporting Mary’s recovery led him to shift his passion to support parents navigating the eating disorder treatment and recovery process. He believes that, "Recovery is possible. Even in the darkest times, never lose hope. There is a fighter within all of us."

Join Karin, Mike, and Mary for a discussion on how abnormal eating patterns are not always “a phase,” the importance of caregiver support and therapy, researching treatment facilities, whole family involvement in the recovery process, choosing recovery as opposed to being forced into treatment, residential treatment as a starting point to the recovery journey, and much more.

Read Mike and Mary’s featured articles below:
• “NEDA Helped Me Realize That I Am Not Alone”
• “Stories of Hope” for NEDA’s Hope for Parents series
• “Anorexia Can Strike and Kill as Early as Kindergarten” for ABC News
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Apply to be a guest on the show here!