subject: Hugging Is Healthy [print this page] I'll never forget Terry, a bulimic who came into treat ment looking like a little old lady, although she was in her early twenties. Every Monday we have commencement, a ceremony for the patients who are leaving treatment that week. Terry arrived that day. She wouldn't talk to anyone and kept her head down, appearing almost psychotic, as if she had lost touch with reality. At the close of the ceremony everyone stood in a circle and held hands. Someone tried to hug her and she angrily threw her arm away. After the ceremony, I went up to where she had withdrawn into a corner, put my hand on her arm, and said, "You're goingto be okay. The only choice you have to make is whether your're going to let me help you," and she started crying.
