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As it turns out, you can transform your poison into medicine.
On Thursday, Sept. 11th at 6:45 PM, join The Looking Glass Foundation’s staff, Board of Directors and family for an evening of song and storytelling with Mindy Dillard at Vancouver’s Fringe Festival. In her one-woman show, How to Survive a Poison Apple, Mindy weaves a musical travelogue from her experiences with body dysmorphia. Inspired by Jung and the writings of Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Dillard conjures a layered soundscape with loops and samples, original songs and her tender, funny and artful storytelling.
Click here to purchase your tickets for this special evening.
"In her candid, entertaining and courageous play, How To Survive a Poison Apple Mindy Dillard offers us an opportunity to explore critical issues that girls and women face--body image, acceptance, the search for love and the messages we receive from society about what it means to be beautiful. Using humor, music, compassion and honesty, Dillard offers us an opportunity to reflect on our own relationship with our bodies. Dillard's work provides a heartfelt launching point for a discussion about eating disorders, shining a light on the struggles that girls and women face with these disorders.”
~Danette C. Haynes
Click here to read a review from Mindy’s performance of How to Survive a Poison Apple in Astoria, Oregon.
Can’t join our team that evening? How to Survive a Poison Apple is also showing on the following dates and at each performance, 30% of ticket sales will be generously donated to The Looking Glass Foundation!
Friday, September 5th @ 5pm
Sunday, September 7th @ 7:35pm
Monday, September 8th @ 9:40pm
Thursday, September 11th @ 6:45 pm (Looking Glass Night)
Friday, September 12th @ 8:45 pm
Saturday, September 13th @ 3pm
Tickets and show information here
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This year, at Sam Sullivan's Public Salon, Tasha Guenther spoke about her personal battle with bulimia. Being unable to eat in public, go traveling, or attend events are just a few of the challenges she faced early on.
Watch her entire inspirational presentation below, and join Tasha as she shares her story of survival and recovery from bulimia over 6 long years.
The Public Salon was held on Wednesday, May 14th, at the Vancouver Playhouse. For more information about past and future events, click here.
Nicole is a Looking Glass Summer Camp Alumna, Foundation scholarship recipient, and inspiration to those around her. We're grateful for her courage to share her story so others will know that recovery to a full and healthy life is within reach for everyone struggling with eating disorders. Let's walk this journey together - you don't have to do it alone.
My journey with my eating disorder began over 11 years ago. High school was a very scary time of life for me - I was anxious, depressed, confused and ultimately felt like I had no control over my life or my body. In my desperate need to find some control, my eating disorder entered my life. For me, my eating disorder felt like the only thing that I could control and provided me with a sense of comfort in all the chaos that was going on around and within me. Of course, my health and my life went downhill quickly. My eating disorder soon consumed every aspect of me; I was tired, weak, unmotivated and ultimately not participating in my own life.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Shortly after beginning my recovery, I attended The Looking Glass Foundation’s Summer Camp. When I showed up at camp, I was no longer having the physical symptoms of an eating disorder and I felt like I was well on my way to recovery. But the truth is that I was still in denial. The summer camp provided me with a safe and comfortable place to look my eating disorder in the eyes and make the decision that I am bigger and stronger than it was. This was probably one of the scariest moments for me and on day two of camp I got completely overwhelmed and had a meltdown. I am so thankful for the safe space the summer camp provided me with, as this moment was a major turning point in my recovery. I realized that I had an eating disorder and that I was the only person in control of my recovery. It was finally time for me to give up my pride, accept help and take responsibility for my actions. I left the camp with the realization that I was not alone in this journey, that I am not a failure for relapsing and that I am strong enough to beat this.
A major goal for me through my recovery and throughout high school was to become an X-ray Technologist. In 2007 my hard work at school paid off and I was accepted to the medical radiography program at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). This was something that I had wanted for years but I soon realized that there was no room in my life for both my eating disorder and this program - I had to choose one or the other. And I chose school. 
With this choice brought up many new challenges and struggles. My biggest trigger is, and always will be, stress. I have found through the years that it is during the most stressful moments of life that my eating disorder rears its ugly head. As a result, it’s incredibly important for me to keep myself if check. The majority of my classmates were able to balance our heavy course load with a part time job to pay for tuition. This, however, was not realistic for me as the stress of managing both was too overwhelming. In 2008 I was awarded a Looking Glass Scholarship and it gave me the freedom to focus on school without having to take on the dangerous stress of making money as well. It was such a blessing and made a huge difference in supporting me in opening a new chapter in my life.
The Looking Glass Foundation has supported me mentally, physically and financially. The organization has also provided my family with the comfort and the services that they have needed to be able to support me on my journey. I will forever have so much gratitude for this organization. Every day I spend in recovery is a day that I have my life back. The beautiful people who work and support the Looking Glass Foundation have indirectly helped me to turn my recovery from days into months, and months into years and they can help you too.
Learn more about Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders' Summer Camp and apply for our 2014 scholarships.
Eating disorders can be overcome. While this may seem impossible before or during treatment, many people leaving a residential care facility feel like they have received a new lease on life. New, healthy eating behaviours, thought processes and habits have been formed. But how difficult is it to cope with eating disorders after residential treatment?
When you go back to your daily routine of school, college, friends, romantic relationships, parents, homework, tests and after-school activities, it can be easy to get caught up newfound challenges and stresses. While you have the tools and support you needed to overcome your challenge, it’s vital that you reach out to your support structure so that you can continue to implement the positive changes you have already made.
Maintaining change after intensive residential treatment should be one of the things that you, your family and your friends need to keep in mind after leaving. Before you leave, research your options. Find local eating disorder support groups that host weekly meetings. It is also advised that you schedule regular follow-up appointments with your counsellor, psychologist and / or doctor so that you can talk about your progress, challenges and any physical or psychological issues that you might be experiencing. If you were admitted to a residential treatment facility, find out about their outpatient and after-care programs that you can attend.
Information for Young Adults
Relapse rates in eating disorders range from 33% to 63% after treatment (Field et al., 1997; Herzog et al., 1999; Keel & Mitchell, 1997; Olmstead, Kaplan, & Rockert, 1994) and repeated admissions to treatment programs are common (Woodside, Kohn, & Kerr, 1998). The authors of these studies have also proved that disorders such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder can impede eating disorder treatments. It’s vital that you seek out the right after-care so that you can continue to effectively deal with any mental or physical consequences of your illness.
For those who can't imagine a life without anorexia, bulimia, or eating disorders otherwise unspecified, The Woodstone Residence offers hope.
Nobody chooses to have an eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia. To the outside world, it may seem like you’re over-analyzing your looks or just being stubborn. Here at The Woodstone Residence, we know how an eating disorder can affect a young person’s life.
Without residential treatment, it can be tough to cope with your illness. Not only do you have years of disordered eating behaviours to deal with, but you also need to learn new ways to deal with not only food, but also other challenges that you face in your everyday life.
If you know that you have an eating disorder, you need to find the right eating disorder support structure. You need to find a place that offers an alternative to the endless torture of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating or any other type of eating disorder. It’s natural to feel scared about finding support, but you need to find a network of experienced people that can help you create a new pathway that inspires meaningful change so that you can overcome these challenges.
At The Woodstone Residence, we offer young people the tools and support they need to challenge the power of their illness and break through emotional barriers without relying on eating disordered behaviour to cope.
The Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders is thrilled to be a part of the 19th Global Civic Policy Society's Sam Sullivan Public Salon on Wednesday, May 14th. Hosted at the Vancouver Playhouse, Sam's Salons have evolved from a private dinner to a 600-person presentation and discussion of the ideas shaping our city.
We're honoured to be a part of the event and look forward to seeing you there! Tickets and more information here.
We recently received a very powerful testimony from a sibling of a young woman with an eating disorder who is a part of the Looking Glass Foundation's community. It is a plea for us to learn more about eating disorders - to arm ourselves with knowledge to better support and help those around us that are suffering.
I try to look back and remember what it was like before... but all my memories are singled out as specific occasions. There is nothing to fill in between the times that I do remember - it is just black, open space. I can’t see the four of us sitting around the table any more like we did every night for the 14 years of my life. Now, if we can pull ourselves together for a meal, we are always joined by another guest – the great pink elephant that constantly is stepping on our feet beneath the table. I can’t find a sense of normality in this family anymore. Any familiarity I recall from the earlier days has long gone disappeared, either forcefully or it has slipped away under our noses – more often the latter.
I look for escape. It is my way of coping – escaping away to another time or place, taking my mind away from the present, pretending things aren’t the way they are. My brain has been trained to flee. I am an escape artist in my own right. If anyone could see the places I have gone when my mind reacts to the stress and pain I constantly feel, they wouldn’t understand how I can make this life disappear so entirely. But the truth remains that I am never really anywhere but in my own head, still where I began, just in avoidance to what stands strangely in front of me. Nothing is real.
There are times that I feel things have gone back to almost what they were, but never has it felt truly like those days, and never has it felt as bad as the days that followed. This reality is a fact; bulleted, indented, bold. It has changed so many things that if I could go back and make it right, I would have no sense of what my life might turn out like. Or maybe it hasn’t changed me at all, and I am the way I am from my own doing. One will never know.
It was late spring. As I mentioned earlier, my memories stand as individual situations - they leave me with no foundation. I was sitting on the left hand side of the floral patterned couch in our basement. I have no recollection of what I was watching on TV, but either way it would not have mattered because my attention was elsewhere. I was in earshot of a conversation occurring upstairs between my parents, I believe. They were speaking of my sister in dire tones. Their words were not in anger or frustration but in complete worry. I was unaware of the reason of this conversation; all I knew was that my sister was in some sort of predicament, a bad one. At a moment, I heard someone’s feet coming down the stairs and into the room I was in. It was my mom. I can’t recall how the conversation went, but she told me that they were very worried about my sister and that she was in trouble. I, without a moment of doubt, gasped in a breath of air and shuddered with tears. I asked what was wrong, thinking of the worst possible things. And my mom said she wasn’t eating.
That day my parents took her to the doctor. My sister was diagnosed with anorexia.
Maybe one or two months later, I was in the kitchen with my mom. We were talking about our family Europe trip coming up in a few weeks. I could sense that she was stressed, so I asked why. My mom told me she didn’t even want to go anymore. We had been planning this for almost a year. I was disappointed in her, like she had let us down. How could she now put this trip on us like a burden? Like a chore? But her head was not in the space that mine was; she was thinking of other things, things I couldn’t even comprehend at the time.
The summer went by so quickly, I don’t know when exactly things got bad. It was hard to see differences in her from week to week when I would see her every day, but it was evident things were changing quickly. My parents made her take a hiatus from soccer; they thought she was too weak to play. One time my grandparents were in town and they wanted to take us out for dinner. We all went, except for my sister who said she didn’t want to go. She did not want to eat, or not eat, in front of them. No one said anything about it at dinner. Sometime later, I was in her room looking for something, I don’t know what, probably a book. I found a journal, and being the little sister it was my duty to read it. What I found will never leave me. It was her diary from the spring to present, detailing every thought and event around her eating disorder. I got to the part around October and it spoke of a night where she stayed home and ate nuts while her grandparents took the family out for dinner. She said she wished she had gone and had a proper meal.
I think I read this journal three times. I knew it was a total breach of her privacy, so I never said anything to anyone. I had had no idea how much she was suffering, how her warped mind was controlling every move she made. I had no idea. I wanted to show my parents, to let them know how these tragic months were for her, so they could get a sense of her pain. But I never did. I did not want to betray my sister and take what outlet of emotion she had and ruin another aspect of her life for her. So I kept the stories to myself. Without this journal I would never have the insight I had – my parents were destined to shelter me from the whole experience. It is in writing where we can see the most raw and real emotions of the writer, like nothing we will ever hear from their mouths, it is their heart and soul.
My sister was being eaten alive by her own body. She could not think, she could not run, at times she could not feel her heart beat. That Christmas, my dog got sick. For no apparent reason she was sick. The veterinarian could not find a source to her illness, but she said dogs could become sick due to stress. Our family was so on edge, the dog couldn’t pass a bowel movement.
She had these green yoga pants, probably the smallest size the store carried. She always wanted to show us new yoga moves she had learned in her class. On several occasions we would be in the kitchen and she would get down on the carpet and attempt these positions. My parents were instructed not to let her stand on her head, because it might cause her to pass out, but any other move she did would cause her bones to jut out in places you didn’t even know the human body had bones. Later, once the pants became too small, I believe my mother threw them out. Those pants were the worst of times. They were the only things that would fit snug to her skeleton, and they carried a view of the human body you only see in National Geographic magazines.
In January, it came to a head. Things were becoming worse by the day, until my parents forced her into hospitalization. She reluctantly agreed to stay for a while to get her weight back up so her heart was not in danger of stopping. At night while she slept, her heart would slow down so much that the nurses would have to come wake her before it took its last beat. Many of these things I did not learn until after the fact, in some cases, years later. At the time, I was in a faraway place. I did not spend so much time at home and would avoid any opportunity to go to the hospital for a visit. It was not a place for me. I did not want to see the truth of how bad things really were. I did go to the hospital once, though, early on in her stay, and looked around the floor. I noticed the smell, too sterile, too many chemicals, and too much sickness. I saw her misery in life.
And now, exactly eight years later, I am revisiting these days. My sister’s disease did not get better after that hospital stay, but worse. New issues surfaced. She attempted university but could not stay healthy. She moved out of the house and my life gained some more normalcies. But no matter where she was; living on campus, living off campus, in treatment, or somewhere else, she was always next to me and on my mind. She caused my heart to flip and my nerves to clench at any given moment.
But today I get to see her true self. When her presence used to cause me extreme stress and heartache, I now enjoy the time I am with her. She is the sister I grew up with, 100% herself, without that great pink elephant taking over her person. Neither of us can guarantee she will always stay this way. Like any mental disorder, her eating disorder will never truly leave her, but she has been able to shut it down and put it in her past. No matter how impossible it seemed in January 2006, no matter how dire the situation was, no matter how positive I was that she was not going to make it to age 25, I never lost hope that I would get to meet my sister again one day.
Like her disease, the discussion around eating disorders has no conclusion. It is up to us to stop whispering about the issue and start raising awareness to a disease that only gets worse when people stop talking. We need to raise awareness for eating disorders across Canada, so please take some time to educate yourself and talk about it with your friends and family because one day you too may be affected, through someone you know, by this insidious disease.
Thank you very much for the continued generous support of the John Casablanca Institute.
Every second year, the Looking Glass Foundation is the recipient of their creative and inspired fashion show fundraisers. We are so grateful for the opportunity to create awareness around Eating Disorders and experience student's passion for fashion through their work.
To learn more about the John Casablanca Institute and the incredible work and their involvement in the local community, click here: http://www.jcinstitute.com/
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We're tickled pink!
Thank you to all who helped make our 10th anniversary gala the amazing success it was!
Your open hearts and generosity make it possible for us to provide much needed support and treatment for those struggling with eating disorders. Countless hours and much passion make the night possible, and for that we thank you. To our donors who provided items for the auction, to the sponsors who stepped up, to the many volunteers who worked all year to get things just right and to you our lovely guests who took the time to come out in support, thank you!
A BIG Thank-you to our Sponsors...
Presenting Sponsor:
Scotiabank | BC & Yukon Region
Gold Sponsor:
Silver Sponsors:
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...and to all those that supported our auction!
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A Moveable Feast Catering
Air Canada Flight Training
Andy Stashuk
Arbutus Jewellers
Armstrong Family Foundation
Bargreen Ellingson
BC Liquor Stores
Bentall Kennedy (Canada) LLP
Best Buy
Betelgeuse - International Star Registry
Bhana Designs
Bloom Essentials Spa
Blue Water Cafe
BMO - Bank of Montreal
Bro Jake Edwards
Brown's Social House
Cactus Club - Coquitlam
Cactus Club Surrey
Canadian District of No Limits Group
Capilano Golf & Country Club
Cathedral Mountain Lodge
Charlie's Chocolate Factory
CinCin
City Market, North Vancouver
Coastal Peoples Fine Art Gallery
Constellation Brands
Cool King Refrigeration
Cowboy Coffee Roasting Company
CTV Television Network
Dan Turner
Dennis Kearns
Dukes Beach House
Dunbar Lumber
Dundrave Dental
Edgemont Village Jeweller
Ed's Linens
Elite Auto Body
Eric Goodwill
Escape Hair & Body
Everything Wine
Fairmont Pacific Rim
Footworks Relaxology
Four Seasons Hotel
Freedom Health Studio
Friends of Looking Glass Foundation
Futura Corporation
Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa
Garden Works
Get Dressed
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Granville Island Brewery
Grouse Mountain Resorts Ltd.
Helijet
Herzog Crystal
Hollands Family
Hotel Rialto
Ivivva Athletica
Jackets for Jasper
Jeff Biskerstaff
Jewel Box Project
Jim Pattison Lexus Northshore
Joan Santopinto
Joe Forte's Seafood and Chop House
John Fluevog Boots and Shoes
Julien Grenier Salon & Aesthetics
Katherine Smyth
Kellers Jewellers Ltd.
Kent Bitz Sales Agency
Landmark Selections
Lattimer Gallery
Lauren Bomhof
Lennox Pub
Linsey Hulls Photography
Live Edge Design
Louise Oswald
Lugaro Jewellers
MacGregor Studios
Malcolm Leitch
Marly MacDonald
Martin Marine
Mex Y Can Trading
Miz Mooz
MMK Maui L.P.
Moraine Lake Lodge
Mud Bay Wines
Natalie Doman
Nicole Bridger
North Shore News
Northshore Ski & Board
Ocean Quest Diving
Oubreathingspaces
Our Name is Mud
Pacific Dermaesthetics
Pacifica Naturopathic Clinic
Paul Wiggins Chiropractic
Pony Salon
Posy
Purdy's Chocolates
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Purebabe
Rackets & Runners Vancouver
Ramona Lee
Rasul Learning Group Inc.
Real Canadian Superstore
Restoration Hardware
Rocky Mountaineer Vacations
Rod Armstrong
Rogers' Chocolates
Ron Clayton
Russell Breweries
Safeway Canada @ Caulfeild Village
Saputo
Scotiabank BC & Yukon Regional Office
Seymour Golf & Country Club
Shoppers Drug Mart
Snowflake
South West Walks Ireland
SpaMobile
Spautopia
Starbucks
Stephanie Orr
Steve Darling
Supervalue # 10
Sylvia Hotel
Sysco Vancouver
Take Five Café
The Magic of Christopher James
The Vancouver Club
The Wine Palette
Thrifty's Foods
Trail Appliances
Urban Tea Merchant
Valerie Farnsworth
Vancouver Canucks Sports & Entertainment
Vancouver Fire Fighters Charitable Soc.
Vancouver Golf Club
Veneto Tapa Lounge
Verna & John Shephard
Villeroy & Boch
Waves Coffee
Wear Else
WestcoastSmile Dental Studio
White House Design
Yaletown Financial
Yogapod
Zazou Salon-Spa
Zip Trek Eco Tours
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I woke up this morning to a red snowboard, a series of scuba lessons and a big smile on my face - these were the spoils of my night at the Looking Glass Foundation's 10th Anniversary Gala.
The event was at the Rocky Mountaineer Railway Station and attended by 400 guests. Pamela Martin was, once again, the hostess for the evening which began with guests sipping cocktails while enjoying an extensive array of silent auction items - everything from wine to jewelry to weekends away taking scuba lessons!
The evening continued with a lovely dinner prepared by the Four Seasons Hotel, which was followed by entertainment provided by a local R&B group that got many of the guests up and out of their seats to dance to Motown favourites. The night rounded out with a live auction that raised over $100,000 for the organization - thank you to all who generously contributed!
The Looking Glass Foundation has become the manifested reality of the founders' visions to make a difference for people living with eating disorders. Last night, we had the great fortune of being the first to hear the incredible announcement that a family close to the organization has purchased the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver on 
Angus Drive for the exclusive use of the Looking Glass foundation to provide a center for eating disorders in Vancouver! More details of this to come.
Thank you to everyone who made the 10th Anniversary Gala such a success. Thank you to our volunteers, to all the companies who generously donated silent auction items, to our gracious host and auctioneer, and of course to everyone who joined us and chose to support the foundation in making tomorrow brighter for thousands living with eating disorders in BC. Thank you - we are tickled pink!
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Tracey is a friend of The Looking Glass Foundation and generously agreed to recap our 2014 Gala for us!
For residential treatment facility
information contact the
Looking Glass Residence:
Phone:
604.829.2585
Fax:
604.829.2586
Toll Free:
1.888.980.5874
