The-F-Word.org

One of the reasons I love blogging is that it has allowed me to meet so many wonderful, clever, witty, strange, eclectic and fascinating people — like Charlynn Schmiedt.  I’m not sure how I stumbled upon The Disordered Times, the blog Charlynn founded and I contributed to, but I’m sure it was by some act of googlefate that we met.  Not only do Charlynn and I share a history of eating disorders, but we soon found out that we both: were loner outcasts in high school; got married within weeks of each other (7/7/07 for Charlynn and 7/25/07 for me); work at newspapers; are vegetarians; and lefty liberals; and bleeding-heart animal lovers; are spiritual but not religious; love to bead; and have fat orange cats named Teddy whom we absolutely adore and hopelessly infantilize.

Charlynn shut down the The Disordered Times earlier this year, mostly because she felt that immersing herself in talk of eating disorders was keeping her rooted in her disordered past.  I’ve often felt like that before in writing about eating disorders, but the three F-words here allows me to detour into related issues that aren’t quite so, well, boring.  Charlynn recently returned to school, which eats up much of what she formerly knew as free time, but she’s agreed to contribute here as a sometimes co-blogger.  While the similarities between Charlynn and I are uncanny and frankly a bit eerie, she offers fresh and different perspective on eating disorders and related issues that I am sure will speak to and resonate with many readers.  Charlynn developed anorexia at 19 and although the now-late-twentysomething has been in recovery for three years, it’s still at times a struggle for her.  She has an academic background in psychology and addictions, helped found her community’s eating disorder task force and has been active in NEDA’s eating disorder awareness week.

So, without further adieu, please welcome Charlynn to The-F-Word.  Here she is, in her own words:

Charlynn Schmiedt currently lives in The Cultural Epicenter of Wyoming – Laramie, Wyoming – where she attends the entire state’s one and only university. She would someday like to move the hell out of Wyoming and live somewhere that doesn’t revolve around wildlife, cowboys, Republican dominance, endless wilderness and other things she isn’t interested in.

She is currently finishing work toward her BA in psychology and has AA degrees in psychology and addictionology. It’s been a long on-again, off-again relationship with her college education, but Charlynn is optimistic that someday she really will finish. After that, she’ll probably end up working at coffee shops for the rest of her life.

Charlynn is happily married to Patrick and they have a cat-kid named Teddy. She is a vegetarian, loves caffeine and is attracted to weird shit. She appreciates crude humor, warm weather and techy toys. Her birthday is July 20. Send presents.

Charlynn ran her own site about eating disorders, The Disordered Times, from 2006-2009, until school sucked away that fun thing called spare time. She still writes a personal blog called “Oh, the Profanity!” and sells awesome beaded jewelry at The Hand That Beads. Please buy something.

Charlynn doesn’t really like talking in the third person, but that’s how these “about the author” things work.