Please share your recovery stories with us!

Hi, my name is Masae Yasuda, RN-BC, MN, a founder of Eating Disorder Hope Japan.  I am originally from Tokyo, Japan and came to the US at age 27 as an international nursing student. 

I founded this organization in 2014 in order to help Japanese clients and family members with eating disorder and the professionals treating eating disorder clients since I worked with Adolescent eating disorder patients in an acute care setting here in the US as a RN. 

Even at this moment, the Japanese treatment environment for eating disorder is so sad and poor, I have to say... 

Insurance would not cover therapists or dietician. Even many psychiatrists tell patients there would be nothing doctors or patients can do to stop the behaviors or recover from eating disorder. Still many of them believe eating disorder is the life long illness and never able to recover from it based on the addiction model.

I had my first eating disorder when I was in 20s after graduating from nursing college in Tokyo, Japan, but at that time there was nobody even understood or helped me to get better, or even to feel better.  I was in such a pain, lonely, depressed, sad, hopeless, self hate, worthlessness and no confident. 

 I was in a field of mental health in Tokyo, Japan, worked with many psychiatrists, social workers,  psychologists, and psych nurses, yet I could not get any kind of treatment there. It took me for 10 years to get better on my own.  I kept feeling so much shame in my past and never able to disclose my experience with anybody else. 

I was fully recovered for more than 10 years, but again at age 49, all of sudden I relapsed after starting to help Japanese professionals because I was terrified by their negative comments and judgements towards me. "We, Japanese people, are different from Americans!!!" "You don't know anything about Japanese situation."

I translated "Life without Ed" by Jenni Schaefer and " 8 Keys to recovery from Eating Disorder" by Carolyn Costin and Gwen Grabb into Japanese and published them. 

Now again I am working on my recovery for the first time with all different kinds of treatment here in the US.  I am so grateful that ironically I have been able to experience the treatment here on my own;;   I just want to give some encouragement and hope to Japanese clients and family members who suffers from this awful illness, eating disorder. 

Please share your stories with me here. Your stories will give a great influence and hope to many of Japanese people who suffer from Eating Disorder!!

Thank you so much for your help, support, and kindness ❤️❤️

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* 1. Did you want to get better from your eating disorder when you seeked the treatment?  Were you confident that you would get better from your eating disorder? 

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* 2. What was the most difficult thing to seek for the treatment or ask for help?  Or what was the hardest for you to recover from eating disorder?

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* 3. What kind of treatment were you or are you going through?  What program was/is the most helpful for you?

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* 4. What stage do you think you are in right now?

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* 5. How many years did it take for you to be able to feel you were fully recovered? Or how many years has it been since you started to receive a treatment?

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* 6. What kind of support from your family and friends were most helpful for you in the course of recovery?

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* 7. If you have a request to Japanese professionals who are treating eating disorder clients, what would it be?

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* 8. What would be your encouraging comments for Japanese family members who is experiencing difficulty dealing with person with eating disorder?

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* 9. Please share how is your life going now?  What career are you engaging in?  How is your relationship with other people? How is your life itself after experiencing eating disorder?

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* 10. What would you like to say to Japanese clients who are really struggling right now but unable to access to  a proper care?

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