From Chaos to Disorder

Dr. Anita Johnston is a Psychologist, Storyteller, Educator and Author of “Eating in the light of the Moon,” a beautiful book available in 7 languages that uses storytelling, myths and metaphors to help women transform their relationships with food. Anita has been working in the field of eating disorders since the early 1980s, and is currently the Clinical Director of Ai Pono Hawaii, a Treatment Center for eating disorders on the island of Maui. In this podcast, we talk about how Anita started treating Eating Disorders Treatment in the early 1980s, and how she uses the language of metaphor in the work she does. We also talk about the ways people can cope with chaos by using food in disordered ways. Anita tells several stories, and also gives us some wisdom about ways to move from chaos and disorder, and back to order again. Introduction to Anita Johnston “Metaphor is how you use one thing to describe another.” The language of metaphor is pictures and storytelling to describe what eating disorders are and how to treat them “It’s using the right hemisphere of the brain” to understand Eating Disorders • The left hemisphere = helps you see the trees • The right hemisphere = forest • We see the same things, just from a different view • Our culture has reared us to use mostly the left side of our brain, and that’s how the Eating Disordered Brain gets hijacked! When you listen to a story, time is no longer linear! • “Anita’s Story,” growing up in Guam influenced her way of thinking • Multi-cultural, indigenous, storytelling has taught her right and wrong • Not good-bad-right-or-wrong…just different! How Anita got started In the early 1980s, she had an interest in women’s experiences, and eventually an interest in psychology, and in disordered eating. Remember Karen Carpenter? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyXil9JPn9c Her body of work: • Why is it women and girls? • Why is it a struggle about food and body? • “I decided to listen to their stories and figure out what was going on.” The Emperor’