In an amazing and thought-provoking talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in February 2006, Sir Ken Robinson asserted his beliefs on how typical education systems are teaching children OUT of being creative. "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original." This is a powerful talk that addresses some of the challenges and opportunities within education, with strong emphasis on the importance of empowering creativity. Although the discussion emphasizes education of youth, I believe that the main messages are applicable to individuals of all ages.

Click here to view Sir Ken Robinson's talk (20 minutes in length).

I like to think of recovery as a process, not an end. During the course of treatment, it is anticipated that there may be times when progress is stalled, or even reversed. Ideally, we'd like to think of treatment as a steady progression toward the goal. Yet that is not realistic. Going a few steps backwards can provide valuable learning opportunities, provided that you are still facing forward - - toward getting better, improving your life, and achieving a better place for yourself. It's when you turn your back on trying to get to that better place that significant problems can arise.

There's a quote by Vincent van Gogh that seems to speak to this lesson:
Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.

Unfortunately, families have been an easy target for blame when it comes to mental and behavioral health problems among youth. Regardless of whether families are part of the problem, they can be part of the solution. In 2001, we published a paper on the associations between family meal frequency and symptoms of bulimia nervosa among 560 college-aged females. Results were clear - the more frequently families ate dinner together, the lower the scores on measures of bulimic symptoms. In part, this reflects a broader picture, in that those families who ate together more frequently were also those that were more cohesive, more likely to promote individuals being self-sufficient, and less focused on achievement in a competitive manner than those families who ate together less frequently.

What are the recommendations based on these findings?
Families should be encouraged to eat together, taking into account barriers such as specific family environments and time factors. In families where frequent family meals are not feasible or could be detrimental due to the overall family functioning (e.g., in cases of violent families or families in which there is another member with an active eating disorder), children may benefit from spending time and eating meals with more appropriate role models.

We already know that puberty is a difficult time for all adolescents, given the myriad of physical changes, social peer pressures, and academic challenges. We can help adolescents navigate these rough waters by providing them safe and open arenas for airing their concerns, de-emphasizing the importance of weight and shape, educating them on strategies to challenge the media's portrayal of thinness as the ideal body shape for females and muscularity as the ideal body type for males, and promoting healthy eating and regular exercise as part of an overall positive lifestyle.

I am perpetually interested in the factors that serve to protect from, as well as those that increase risk toward, the development of psychological problems. While I believe that psychological diagnoses are a combination between genetic predispositions and environmental stressors, certain individuals and/or populations may be at increased risk.

In 2001, my colleagues and I conducted a retrospective recall study of the effect of pubertal timing and perception of weight prior to puberty on eating disorder risk among more than 200 college-age females. We found that the perception of being overweight prior to entering puberty, but not age at onset of puberty, may be a risk factor for the later development of disordered eating concerns and behaviors, body image dissatisfaction, and related psychological problems. However, both age at onset of puberty and prepubertal weight perception were associated with greater emphasis on the importance of appearance and stronger drive for thinness, and poorer impulse control. Early maturers or those perceiving their prepubertal weight as overweight were more symptomatic.