A few weeks ago, I reviewed Beating Ana: How to Outsmart Your Eating Disorder and Take Your Life Back by Shannon Cutts and took some great advice from the book for my post on silencing the eating disorder voice. Today, I'm pleased to present an interview with Shannon! Below, we talked all about MentorCONNECT, Shannon's book, eating disorder recovery and relapse. I think you'll find Shannon's responses very helpful. Even if you don't have an eating disorder, you'll certainly find many words of wisdom.

Before we dig in to the interview, I wanted to mention that MentorCONNECT welcomes women of any age. Currently, they have members of all ages, including women in their 40s and 50s.

1. How does MentorCONNECT work? For instance, what does a week or a month of mentoring look like for a mentee and a mentor?

MentorCONNECT was created to provide a forum where individuals in strong recovery (mentors) could match in one-on-one mentoring partnership with individuals still working towards recovery (mentees). We also encourage self-selection of mentor-mentee teams from within our mentoring pool because we have found that that produces the strongest, most effective matches, although we do provide assistance with matching upon request.

Our mentoring teams are responsible for setting the communication parameters for their partnership - so in answer to your question, it will look different for each team. Some teams like to have a short daily check-in followed by one longer email or phone call per week. Other teams will choose a different structure that works for their communications preferences and schedules. We do provide a comprehensive orientation packet that guides new teams in how to set these parameters and get set up for a successful partnership.

2. The foundation of your book, Beating Ana, and MentorCONNECT is that relationships replace eating disorders. You emphasize the importance of social support and volunteering your time to help sufferers when you're strong in your recovery. How can individuals with eating disorders go about finding a support community that works for them? What are the options?

Well, this is the million-dollar question, isn't it! You just highlighted the reason MentorCONNECT was created - because it is still quite difficult for many individuals to locate a supportive local community that is stable and has a strong contingent of recovered individuals who are active and participating in the community.

Because of this, I have spent quite a bit of time talking with people who ask me this question, and my recommendation is to focus on quality over quantity. When I was struggling, I literally had no one I could confide in for the first seven years of my battle. When I was eighteen, my life was changed forever because of the presence of my eating disorder, and that was when I met the woman who would be my first mentor (I talk a lot about her in Beating Ana). So then I had one - count them, one - person I could confide in who was willing to support me. But for me, after seven years of having nobody to talk to, having just that one person was unimaginable wealth to me!

Furthermore, while it is recommended and certainly ideal to have a full professional treatment team (medical doctor, psychiatrist, therapist, dietitian, ancillary professionals as needed) as well as several individuals who are willing to offer lay support (mentor, family members, friends, peers), this often is simply not possible. So I recommend focusing on building your network slowly - one person at a time. In the last chapter of Beating Ana (called "Just Get Over It"), I recommend locating just three people who can serve in sustained, supportive roles during the recovery process. In the chapter, I give ideas about how to approach those people, what to say, and how to proceed once they have agreed.

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