020 - More than Food: What It Felt Like to Live with an Eating Disorder (with Liron Cohen and Ashley Steenhausen)

Episode 020

More than Food: What It Felt Like to Live with an Eating Disorder (with Liron Cohen and Ashley Steenhausen)

In this episode, Jenni Gaines and Laura Cohen welcome Liron Cohen, senior program coordinator at ANAD, and Ashley Steenhausen, a 20-year-old ANAD peer mentor who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at 16, to continue answering the caregiver questions that there wasn’t time for during FEAST's 2026 FEAST of Knowledge recovery panel. Together, Liron and Ashley offer an inside view of what it actually feels like to live with an eating disorder — the relentless internal chaos, the ego-syntonic nature of the illness, the seductive-yet-tormenting voice that can never be won against, and why the disorder so often breeds isolation even when support is present. They also tackle one of the most common and least-understood symptoms — never feeling "sick enough" — and explain why that cruelty compounds the difficulty of seeking and accepting help. Listeners will come away with a translator's view of the eating disorder experience, a clearer sense of why compassion and patience matter more than any perfect response, and a reminder that caregivers need support too.

00:00 Introduction and Disclaimer

01:00 Guest Introductions: Liron Cohen and Ashley Steenhausen

03:30 What Is ANAD?

04:30 What Peer Support Teaches: Liron on Working Alongside Recovery

06:40 Being a Peer Mentor: Ashley's Experience at ANAD

09:00 Why People with Eating Disorders Don't Feel Heard

13:30 Older Adults with Eating Disorders: Invisible and Overlooked

16:30 What It Actually Feels Like to Live with an Eating Disorder

22:00 More Than Vanity: The Internal Battle and What Recovery Means

25:00 What People with Eating Disorders Wish Caregivers Understood

31:00 Never Sick Enough: The Cruelest Symptom

39:00 What Caregivers Can Do: Compassion, Patience, and the Celiac Parallel

SUPPORT & RESOURCES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FEAST website:

https://feast-ed.org/

FEAST programs and services:

https://feast-ed.org/programs-and-services/

ANAD peer mentorship program:

https://anad.org/get-support/request-a-recovery-mentor/

ANAD eating disorder support groups:

https://anad.org/get-support/about-our-support-groups/

ANAD eating disorders helpline:

https://anad.org/get-support/eating-disorders-helpline/

Ashley Steenhausen's caregiver resource site:

mychildhasaneatingdisorder.squarespace.com

Guest Bios:

Liron Cohen is the Senior Program Coordinator at ANAD. Liron runs ANAD's mentorship program, as well as develops trainings for all ANAD programs. In her role, she has trained hundreds of volunteers and matched and supervised hundreds of mentors and mentees. She feels immensely grateful to get to be a part of so many healing journeys.

Ashley Steenhausen is a 20-year-old college student studying Psychology and Child Development at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She grew up in Orange County, California, where she spent her time playing soccer, skiing, spending time at the beach, and doing everything with her two older sisters. Shortly after her 16th birthday, she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and her family's world was completely turned upside down. That experience changed her in ways she is still learning from and gave her a deep compassion for those struggling with eating disorders and the caregivers supporting them. Watching her own parents feel lost with little guidance is a big part of why she cares so much about supporting families through recovery. Today, she carries that passion into her work as an ANAD peer mentor, where she uses her lived experience to support her mentee, and through speaking on the 2026 FEAST of Knowledge panel.