{"id":3249,"date":"2015-09-03T11:45:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T15:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2015-09-12T21:38:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T01:38:45","slug":"bahais-with-eating-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/bahais-with-eating-disorders\/","title":{"rendered":"Baha’is with Eating Disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"
BLOGGER: SUSAN GAMMAGE<\/h5>\n
\"Susan<\/a><\/h6>\n
— Susan Gammage, MES, author, educator and researcher living and working in Muskoka, loves to find ways to apply Bah\u00e1’\u00ed principles to everyday life situations; to help people learn to “live the life”. She is the author of 16 books including Violence and Abuse: Reasons and Remedies<\/a>. Visit her Bookstore<\/a> ; get your Free E-Books<\/a> ; sign up for her Newsletter<\/a>; and follow her on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Linkedin<\/a>.<\/h6>\n
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Someone once wrote:<\/p>\n

My aunt (a grown woman in her 40\u2019s) has a serious eating disorder and has had it for at least a few years now. Her family is in complete denial that she could possibly have a \u201cteenage problem.\u201d After a while, the malnutrition combined with a REALLY bad relationship (two way street) has led her to become psychotic. My question is do you have any advice on how anybody can get through to help her? What can be said or done that she might actually listen to? She has finally admitted to having problems eating and fully admits that she is deliberately doing this to hurt the family because they\u2019re trying to control her, and as long as they try to interfere in her life she will continue to punish them.<\/p>\n

I fully admit that I\u2019ve had no personal experience with eating disorders; nor have I found any specific guidance in the Baha\u2019i Writings about this topic.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, here are some spiritual principles which come to my mind; and I hope you\u2019ll add some more!<\/p>\n

A non-Baha\u2019i with eating disorders once scrolled through my book Violence and Abuse: Reasons and Remedies<\/a> and read this quote:<\/p>\n

As this physical frame is the throne of the inner temple, whatever occurs to the former is felt by the latter. In reality that which takes delight in joy or is saddened by pain is the inner temple of the body, not the body itself. Since this physical body is the throne whereon the inner temple is established, God hath ordained that the body he preserved to the extent possible, so that nothing that causeth repugnance may be experienced. (The B\u00e1b, Selections from the Writings of the B\u00e1b, <\/em>p. 95)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She said: \u201cIf I could really believe that was true, my eating disorder would be gone\u201d!<\/p>\n

She intuitively understood that embedded within this quote was the connection between:<\/p>\n