Ed is the name Gloria Craig gives the eating disorder she has struggled with for nearly three years. Ed has consumed her thoughts and ravished her body. But these days, thanks to counseling from Fort Wayne professionals trained in treating disorders and through God's power, Ed is just an occasional whisper in the back of her mind, she said.

The 46-year-old Cecil, Ohio, woman will share her journey to recovery at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne as part of the campus' Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

“I'm a professional at burying my emotions. It's protective,” Craig said.

Childhood experiences, fears, trauma and disappointments were buried inside, layer after layer.

Then three years ago when her mother died, Craig tired to bury that pain, too.

“But the dump was full,” she said. That's when Ed, or the eating disorder, took over.

“An eating disorder is not about food. It's a symptom of something underneath, always something deeper. This was never about looking thin, about fitting into a smaller swimsuit.”

Fortunately for Craig, a friend finally confronted her and told her it was time to seek professional help. Too few people do that, Craig said - but it can save a life.

For the person with an eating disorder, “finding the right counselor is almost like finding a translator … someone to unravel this foreign language, this monster of a disorder.”

After one counselor wisely told her he lacked expertise in treating eating disorders, she found help from therapeutic dietitian Ann Reidenbach of Consulting & Counseling Associates, 2214 Hobson Road. Reidenbach specializes in treating eating disorders. Craig's treatment team also includes marriage and family therapist Heidi Easterly of Harvest Counseling Group, 4216 Flagstaff Cove.

“What someone eats is important, but what's even more important is why they're eating,” Reidenbach said. She laid out a very clear weekly meal plan for Craig, starting initially with enough calories to meet Craig's metabolic minimum, then gradually increasing them. Nutrition must be addressed, Reidenbach said, because a starved body leads to disorted thoughts in the mind. In the beginning, the goal is for patients to do what she calls mechanical eating to get enough calories in.

Depression, anxiety, or both, go hand in hand with the illness. With anorexia, the person starves herself or himself, thinking it will relieve the anxiety or depression.

Four out of 10 Americans have an eating disorder or know someone who does. More than one in three normal dieters progresses to pathological dieting, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Although not as common as in women, eating disorders also affect men.

“After I had food in my stomach, it created anxiety,” Craig said. “When you don't eat, it creates sort of a false endorphin.”

The mind and the body become disconnected, Reidenbach said, noting hunger leads to feelings of insecurity for some people, but when they eat, the feeling of food in the stomach creates anxiety, and the vicious cycle continues.

Craig did the mechanical eating, and today does “mindful eating. I taste my food. I enjoy it,” she said, noting the road has not been easy to uncover truth and forgo listening to the lies she was telling herself.

“I made truth cards. I wrote down the things I know to be true, things I learned from Ann and Heidi. I memorized them.” Some cards were reminders of her value as a person; others that food is but fuel for the body, not something to be feared.

Favorite Bible verses also became building blocks of truth so that her brain software was “reprogrammed,” she said.

A professional painter and potter, Craig finds healing in creativity and grounding through daily journaling. Three to five years is usually the minimum time required for recovery through successful outpatient treatment.

Still, Craig said, “I'm expecting to struggle with this the rest of my life.”

It's a fact with which most experts agree.

“I hope my story will help someone else. That's why I'm telling it. I want to be whole … and I plan on being successful.”