Kathleen Howe
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My Intensive Self Growth Journey of Recovery Expert
Kathleen Howe Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Night Eating Syndrome, Mental Illness, Emotion and Feeling Work, Lifestyle Change
Born in Corning, New York in July of 1957; I've had the distinct unfortunate opportunity to be included as one of the "baby boomers" labeled such through a generation of young adults, reaching out to each other in "acute need" of something - oftentimes choosing sex instead of finding their answers. These people quite often have many issues to deal with.
Being labeled long before discovery of said label; perhaps my path was predestined. But, after an entire lifetime of dysfunction, trauma and being raised by parents who were programmed to have NO emotions and feelings - I knew things had to change. Taking desperate steps I began my life over again in 1994; moving to a new city where I knew only one person.
Starting my life over again was a concept which "fooled me" into believing that it was all I needed to do to become disassociated from my past. Starting out anew was a refreshing and invigorating thought, but that's all it was.... I didn't know I had to do more than simply - "think" to begin my life as a normal person. It was painful coming into my label and it would need to be painful making this drastic change.
In 1992, I was diagnosed, finally, with post traumatic stress disorder, depression and an unusual eating disorder - Night Eating Syndrome. These three factors had ruled my life since childhood. I had perhaps not since the moment of my birth known what "normal" was. My mother and father didn't know either - so this personal challenge became apparent to me in those days - to be a personal growth journey full of recovery.
Night eating syndrome was perhaps my biggest challenge. It is not an established, "eating disorder" as labeled thru the DSMV per se; but Dr. A.Stunkard from the University of Pennsylvania's Weight and Eating Disorder Clinic had begun studying this syndrome the very year I was born. Ironic as it seems, I'd been swimming in a pool of myths, wrong guesses and stigmatized beliefs before finding this doctor and his work done specifically in his clinic.
Dr. Stunkard has been a life saver to those who are experiencing night eating syndrome. The numbers are only a significant guesstimate so to speak of the exact number of people who are suffering every day and mostly nights with this syndrome. With night eating syndrome, one of the most determining factors in diagnosis is that one takes in more calories in nighttime hours than in the daytime hours. The average urge screams loudly to be fed - white flour/white sugar foods and can only be quieted through bingeing large portion sizes of sweets.
While some people differ in what they eat; most are in need of the comforting "taste" of those carbohydrate killer foods made from mostly white flour and white sugar. My initial response to learning that I was included in this diagnosis was - alcohol is a white sugar product - as it was alcohol that was my alte ate self medicating substance; as it was also my uncle's and my own daughter's who both experience night eating syndrome from time to time.
Through the past five years of my life, I've been consumed with learning about the contributing factors surrounding the eating disorder - Night Eating Syndrome. Since studying this disorder at great length as well as the work completed by Dr. Stunkard and his group of researchers and doctors at his clinic - I have been corresponding with a significant portion of the world poplulation who are affected by this syndrome.
I overcame Night Eating Syndrome three years ago, but still "feel the urge." as I believe it to truly be similar to an "addiction" that is of life long proportions. There is no cure; only the possibility of learning how to "control" the syndrome.
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
Mental Health & Medical Professionals Need To Re-examine Customer Service Skills
It's a newly "recognized" population seeking mental health and medical services in today's world. The statistics say it all when over 11.7% of the military are currently reacclimating themselves into everyday society with post traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental illnesses. ...
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Article
Night Eating Syndrome
I know about Night Eating Syndrome. I know what it's like to get up in the middle of the night - every night - to march in a zombie-like trance to my kitchen in methodical searches for the "white flour/white sugar" treasures in my pantry. I know what it's like to eat, continually chewing, ...
Recently added
Article
Self Talk: The Essential Element of Self Help
"The mind is a terrible thing to waste." I bet you can remember this slogan being used by The United Negro Fund. It was on television more times that I could count - for years. It was memorized through subliminal message by many a boomer. But the mind IS a terrible thing to waste and not just for African Americans. Everyone has a powerful tool packed into their heads. It's up to us whether or not we will use it to the best of its ability. We are what we think, but we must thi
August 31, 2009
Article
Relief for Experiencing Emotions and Feelings Through Hypervigilence
Hypervigilence... it's what life is all about when dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. Everything is extreme, intensified, all or nothing, and it's incredibly difficult to simply relax upon demand, but it's what we must learn to do if we've been diagnosed with PTSD. The plague of hypervigilence automatically magnifies anger, fear and other negative emotions and feelings causing an "overwhelm" situation in a few minute seconds of time. So what's a person to do? This
August 16, 2009
Article
Praying For Those Who Have Wronged You in the Past
Having had a very difficult past wrought in domestic violence and relationship dysfunction it occurred to me recently that it would be better to forgive those who wronged me in the past than to hang on to the negative energy I held within me through horrible memories and unresolved feelings and emotions. I've written about unresolved emotions and feelings and the importance of pulling up those that were buried deep within that internal abyss of pain we all carry along with us
August 10, 2009
Article
Making A Commitment To Ones Self
Seven years ago I made the first commitment I'd made to my self in my entire life. That's right! I was forty-five years old and had never paid much attention to the commitments in my life. If things didn't work out, oh well! I had that attitude since my teenager years. My parents never taught me the meaning of the word commitment. I had no idea that commitments were important things to learn about. I can remember my mother asking me what was going to happen when my first marr
August 6, 2009
Article
Treatment Expectations for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Depression
As an individual with post traumatic stress disorder and depression, I've found it extremely difficult to know what to expect for treatment of my disorders. There isn't much written about the average joe out there that either suspects there's a possibility he/she may be experiencing PTSD or those who have been diagnosed with PTSD and have completed some treatment, but don't know what to expect for recovery. My initial thoughts when seeking a therapist didn't even include tho
July 21, 2009
Article
Avoidance Behaviors Are Dangerous
Not only are avoidance behaviors commonplace for those experiencing post traumatic stress disorder; people in general have a tendency to avoid what they don't know what to do with. Avoidance behaviors revolve around our fears. What are you afraid of? You avoid it like the plague I'll bet! Those of us who have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and even those with depression have a very high level of practicing avoidance behaviors to get through each day. Not
July 5, 2009
Article
Night Eating Syndrome Often Comes Back
Night eating syndrome, an eating/sleeping disorder that is still being pushed and pulled upon to determine where it belongs in the DSMV can lurk in the background once the night eater gains control of the chronic habit and stops the practice of waking and immediately choosing white flour/white sugar types of food to binge upon. There is a conscious knowledge of the habit most of the time, but in those who are so sleep deprived, there can be merely a fleeting memory of initial
June 18, 2009
Article
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Who Doesn't Have It?
As I continue to grow in my personal growth recovery journey I find that there are more people out there in the world that have undiagnosed PTSD than ever. Of course, I must take into consideration the emerging troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in which war and violence are a standard in life. Our military and their families are being inundated with diagnosis of PTSD but the military and the rest of the world just aren't ready for it. It's still an enigma that
August 26, 2008
Article
Night Eating Syndrome1
I know about Night Eating Syndrome. I know what it's like to get up in the middle of the night - every night - to march in a zombie-like trance to my kitchen in methodical searches for the "white flour/white sugar" treasures in my pantry. I know what it's like to eat, continually chewing, biting, chewing, and biting until everything is gone. I know what it's like to step on the crumbs, some very big crumbs, on the floor as I stand up from where I've seated myself to "chow" an
May 6, 2008
Article
Unresolved Emotions and Feelings: Getting Familiar with your Past
The older we get – the more we forget – or so it seems. When I began my personal growth journey for recovery I began remembering the most traumatic events that transpired when I was a child. After researching information conce ing memories, I realized that some of the things I was remembering that happened in my childhood might not be accurate. Why - you ask? I am an adult now remember a child’s perception of what happened. When I was a child and experienced a sniper crawlin
July 17, 2007
Websites & resources
SelfGrowth-published websites, downloads, and contributor profile websites connected to this expert.
Website
Night Eating
self help information conce ing eating disorders and sleep disorders most importantly night eating syndrome
Recently added
Website
night eating
This website explains Night Eating Syndrome and the effects of lifestyle factors have on those experiencing the disorder. Other eating and sleeping disorders are discussed as well. This site is a part of the emotional feelings network of sites.
Recently added
Website
Night Eating
Night eating is an eating disorder website for the less known eating disorder of night eating. Although the site is based upon night eating, it also has information conce ing all eating disorders & sleep disorders, trauma, recovery & lifestyle factors that affect eating habits.
September 23, 2007
Website
emotional feelings
Homepage for "the emotional feelings network of sites" that contains various information from many authors & myself on self help, recovery, personal growth, mental illness, physical health & much more that pertains to positive life change.
September 23, 2007
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Kathleen Howe
Most people living their lives in misery and suffering of some kind are searching for relief. They don't know what is making them miserable or what it is they have to change to feel better. Age, gender or financial status aren't determinents in the course of the emotional and physical pain being experienced by the greater world population today.
Most are superficially searching for that "get better quick" fix that will enable them to feel better about their current life standing in the least painful measure. It's unfortunate that most give up before realizing that they are worth the work it takes to realize "the truths" in their lives so they can make adjustments and change.
It is by working through those adjustments - and bringing to life their own belief systems, truths and resolving the hurts from the past that they will achieve that much needed "relief" they so desperately want and need.
Other highlights
I currently have a network of 28+ websites - the emotional feelings network of sites - that are all inter-connected through an underlined link word opportunity. Within each site - all emotion & feeling words are connected to their own pages - respectively - whether you are at the mental health site, the night eating site or even the abuse site. There are ample opportunities for visitors to click on the same link word within a page. Sometimes it takes time for one to muster up enough natural curiosity to click on a link.
The sites within my network are listed below. Each site contains articles by various authors, links for additional information & personal thoughts & articles written by Kathleen Howe:
anxieties 101: A mental health site that details a description of different anxiety disorders as well as depression, symptomology, treatment(s) as well as:
- how these mental health problems interact with gender and age
- brief descriptions as to how lifestyle factors interact with mental health issues
The lifestyle factors included are:
- diet/nutrition
- exercise
- sleep
- relaxation
- counseling
- medication
anxieties 102: a continuation of anxieties 101 with additional information conce ing all factors - both of these sites are updated continually
I began my journey of self growth and recovery here - studying mental illness because of my own diagnosis of post traumatic stress, depression and an eating disorder. I soon began to put my facts together, both personal and professional to find that my lifestyle factors had a huge bearing upon my mental health. Further study involved the discovery of mental heatlh issues throughout every age in my lifetime.
emotion & feeling work: the following sites are all conce ed with a breakdown of each emotion & feeling in an alphabetical manner - some have additional information sites (meaning that the free site was at its quota so in result a new site was added with additional information)
In my quest for personal growth and recovery I found myself in need of resolving all buried unresolved emotions & feelings from my prior traumas and crises as well as the continuation of dysfunctional relationships in my lifetime.
emotional feelings: emotions and feelings beginning with the letter "a" - this site also includes the "homepage" for the entire network of sites
more-emotional feelings: includes additional information for the emotions & feelings included in emotional feelings, plus: additional emotion & feelings beginning with the letter "a"
emotional feelings 2: emotions and feelings beginning with the letter "c"
emotional feelings 3: emotions and feelings beginning with the letter "b"
emotional feelings 4: emotions and feelings beginning with the letter "d"
feeling emotional: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters "o - p - "
feeling emotional too: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters " e & f "
feeling emotional 3: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters "j - k - l - m - n "
(there is also a back up site for feeling emotional 3 with additional information)
feeling emotional 4: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters " g - h - i "
(there is also a back up site for feeling emotional 4 with additional information)
feeling emotional 5: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters " s - t - v - w"
your unemotional side 1: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters "un" a through l
your unemotional side 2: emotions and feelings beginning with the letters "un" m - w
Lifestyle Factors: diet/nutrition - exercise - sleep - relaxation - counseling - medication - may all need to be changed to achieve well being. After discovering the importance of the lifestyle factors in personal growth and recovery - this site outlines brief descriptions of how changes can begin to be made with each individual factor listed above!
changes: the first of two sites outlining different lifestyle changes that can be made to aid in achieving one's goals for physical and mental well being.
changes 2: the second of two sites outlining different lifestyle changes that can be made to aid in achieving one's goals for physical and mental well being
I was finally able to come across the eating disorder, not yet classified as "an eating disorder," but recognized as a "syndrome." I had lived most of my life with night eating syndrome. This site covers all eating disorders as well as night eating syndrome - lifestyle factors that affect an eating disorder - and sleep disorders because night eating syndrome affects sleep habits.
night eating 101: this website has a link to join a very productive yahoo support group for night eaters with about 50 members in one year
I was the victim of all types of abuse, as well as growing up as a third generation of family life that included domestic violence.
abuse 101: this site talks about different types of abuse
Childhood Experiences: After doing an exercise that included delving into my past, I found that my childhood was full of traumas and crises that were never resolved in my mind. I most likely had post traumatic stress and depression in early childhood. My eating disorder did begin in early childhood as well.
children 101: In this site I specifically target information conce ing children. (Covering mental health, physical health, emotions & feelings, dysfunctional relationships, etc.)