All the Best with Jess

Before the Clock Stops Ticking: Building A Global Eating Disorder Documentary

• Jessica Fabus Cheng • Season 2 • Episode 2

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The story we’ve been sold about eating disorders is way too small, and it’s costing lives. On this Episode I sit down with producers Morgan Maxwell DiPrimo and Mary Miller of Lotus Light Productions to unpack how a personal recovery journey, a family’s heartbreaking loss, and more than 200 interviews became the blueprint for a documentary that aims to change minds, policy, and practice.

Morgan and Mary's plan blends storytelling with tangible change: clinician training where it’s missing, school-ready education for teachers and parents, and community spaces that mirror recovery networks seen in addiction care. 

Morgan’s path - finding purpose through work and life beyond the disorder - illustrates what real recovery can look like: identity restored, passions rediscovered, and hope made practical. Their social platform, Your Recovery Besties, opens the door now with relatable, non-triggering content and behind-the-scenes progress as the film moves forward under the working title Before the Clock Stops Ticking.

If you care about mental health, healthcare equity, or better support for families, this conversation offers clear takeaways and next steps. Follow @YourRecoveryBesties on TikTok for updates, and share this powerful episode with someone who needs to hear it. Your voice helps keep this movement growing.





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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to All the Best With Jess. I am joined today by Morgan Maxwell DiPrimo and Mary Miller, who are co-producers of Lotus Light Productions, who are creating a groundbreaking documentary surrounding eating disorders. I am incredibly grateful to have you both here in the studio. So let's dive into this. Both of you come to this from an intensely personal yet powerful place. Was there a moment in this journey where you realized that this was something that was incredibly important to build together?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, I could think just kind of going back, we've known each other for 20 years. Um, so I've always admired Mary because she was in the industry and I've always wanted to be in the industry. So when I had this idea to do a documentary about eating disorders, she was the first person I thought of, and she wasn't sold. I had this and I had to keep being a pest and saying, no, no, no, like do this with me, do this with me. So she said, okay, well, get like see if you could get a couple interviews. And I did, and I sent them to her, and I think after a few.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So when she when initially I'm like, okay, eating disorders, you know, I didn't I I had the stigma of what it was. I didn't really know what this could be. And as we started diving in and some of the calls that she had set up were incredible, the it just opened my eyes, and the stigma changed very quickly.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's incredible to go from having a stigma to starting to feel like you were called to amplify these voices and break the silence for people and to help in promoting this documentary. I think that's really powerful to have the story and also a way to produce this to show people what this is really about. One of the things that you mentioned, Morgan, was something called what you referred to as the golden ticket, which essentially was individuals who may not have the ability to have the proper care. How did how did having that golden ticket impact you?

SPEAKER_01:

So when I first got diagnosed and when I went into treatment, a residential center, what a lot of people don't know about eating disorders specifically is it's, you know, when you want insurance to cover it, it goes by BMI.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, only 6% of people with eating disorders are underweight. So a lot of people aren't able to get the care they needed. My father's insurance switched the day I was admitted to treatment, and the old insurance would have not covered my stay, and the new insurance did. So I felt, I'm a spiritual person, I felt like that was my golden ticket to one, be in recovery. And I let's be very clear, I wasn't gung home after that, but like I was willing to give it a try.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And two, I felt because I had that opportunity, and a lot of people didn't, I had to pay it forward.

SPEAKER_00:

That's incredible. I think that's very true to faith in general. Like sometimes you you know, you make your own plans, but then God really has other plans for you. And sometimes those plans that He has don't look like the thing that you wanted, but you realize later it's absolutely what you needed. And to have you sitting here now, I think is a testament to those, you know, that belief. Um Mary, for you, just going back to changing from having that stigma to now wanting to break the silence and amplify voices and getting on board the project. How do you feel what changed for you? Because you said you let go of that stigma or that stigma was broken for you. Was there something in one of the interviews? Because you have interviewed over 200 people. I mean, at this point, like you've I'm sure there's incredibly powerful stories. Was there something specific that changed for you, or what made you see things differently?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, when Morgan came, she started sharing her story, but she started slowly because you want to build a trust around somebody when you're being so vulnerable, right? Yeah. So when she started peeling back the layer a little bit, I was like, okay, okay. And then we had an interview with a husband and wife, and they had written a book which included their daughter's, it was their daughter's journey and some of her journals. We she had the interview first out of the gate, and then I watched the interview and I got the book and I read the book right away. I, as a mom and now a grandmother, I was so moved at what they had gone through trying to save their daughter's life. And unfortunately, she didn't make it. And it wasn't because they didn't try everything they could, it was because there were flaws in the system. And that uh made me ask why. So I connected as a parent, I changed my view 100%, along with Morgan's story.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And then I said, okay, we we've got to we gotta delve into this. What is going on?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think that's really key too about just journaling in general, because so often I've heard stories with eating disorders, but also for other things like drug addiction, where it really was the journal that peeled back the layers, where the parents or you know, whoever, the caretaker, started to understand the depth of this. So this isn't just something that's made up. This isn't just like, oh, you know, a teenage girl's, you know, privileged disease or something. That this is a real thing that's impacting on multiple layers. What are some of the myths that you want to break with this project?

SPEAKER_02:

There are, well, right there, a skinny white girl disease. You know, it is not, it's a human being disease. It affects men, it affects women, and it doesn't matter where you live. We've talked to people all around the world. We've talked to China, Australia, Japan, we've talked to Europe, we've talked to Canada, all over the United States. It affects people. There are no boundaries, and it doesn't matter what age, what sex you are, it's a human being problem. And that is that was really big for me to hear. I didn't there are numbers. You know, listen, there's 30 million people that we know of in the United States alone that suffer with this. Those numbers can't be accurate because a lot of men don't come out and talk about it. And there's 80 million people worldwide. That's not accurate because men don't come out and talk about it. And it starts very young. There's we've heard of stories of five-year-olds getting checked for what's called RFID, which is a form of eating disorder. And we've talked to people in their 70s and 80s who have eating disorders.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And kind of going off of that, like with the men diagnosis, is up until the DSM five changed it, but up until the DSM four, one of the criteria for anorexia nervosa was loss of period. So men don't get period, so they're not getting diagnosed. So there's just a lot of things that I think people just need to be more educated on what this is and what it could look like. I think we have one particular view.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to go back to your story. When you entered into treatment, was there a difference maker for you? Because you had mentioned, you know, all right, I'm gonna try this. What when did you start to get traction with recovery?

SPEAKER_01:

So when I first went into treatment, I was the patient that did not want to get better. I was, you know, F you, like, but I think what I I saw a few things, and one of them was I saw people in and out of treatment, and just I didn't want that to be my life. I didn't like, and it was this mentality of like, oh, you'll be back kind of thing, which is not very empowering. So I think that was one element of it. When I left treatment and kind of went through all the programs and got discharged and all that stuff, I went back to college and then I got an internship at NBC. I think, like going back now and looking at my journey, because I kind of blocked a lot of it out. I was so excited about the and it sounds so simple. I was so excited about the NBC job, and I felt like I found my passion and purpose that it kind of drowned, it didn't go away, but it kind of drowned out the other stuff that I could just be myself a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And like people at NBC didn't know my story, they didn't know my background, I was good at it. So I think that was a huge impact looking back now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We do find in the people we've talked to that they become identified by their disorder as opposed to the person, you know, and it's it's it's it's nobody's fault, it's what happens. And there again, it's another awareness, right? These are people, they have passions. Yes, are they in a journey? Yeah, is it hard? Absolutely. Is it doable? 100%. But we can't forget, you know, they do have passions. Let's ask them, you know, instead of identifying and saying, you know, how are you doing? And so what do you love to do? Do you love to read? What whatever that may be, right? Those little simple things, if you come across anybody with or somebody sharing with you, it's something to remember.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I think too, something that, you know, I'm, I mean, I'm still a registered nurse, but I no longer work in the field. But something that I notice, not just with, you know, a patient with an eating disorder, but in general, and something that we can do better in the medical field is not to define people by the disease or the disorder or the issue. Very often, you know, working on the floor in the nursing field, it's very easy to say, oh yeah, the hypertension in room five or the eating disorder, you know, in room seven. And it's a way to quickly identify people so people know what's going on on one hand, but the other hand, there needs to be more compassion and understanding and that it's a person, it's a whole person. And that was something I loved about the nursing fields, more holistic, at least as far as Western medicine goes. It's looking at the whole patient. But that is a habit that I've seen myself in the field that I think would do better to not be referred, you know, referring to patients like that, or even having the mentality that that's who they are. So a documentary like this, I know people that I know would be interested in watching because it would help them to understand and care for patients better.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think that people just want to be heard. The it, you know, after talking to people like 200 people, even some people in the midst of their struggle, one of the biggest takeaways they say to us is like, thank you for just listening. And sometimes you don't even have to give advice, sometimes you could just listen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But we're also finding in the medical world that they're they're not they're not trained. We did research on this, doctors and nurses, dentists, anybody in any medical field who touches another person, right? They're not trained in it. There's no training in eating disorders, and it does make a difference. If somebody's really sick and they come into the hospital, it's a question that has to be asked because there are protocols that you do differently with somebody with an eating disorder, right? And there's certain behaviors that come in with the eating disorders that there's should be awareness to bring the proper people in to help guide through whatever's going on. So it's a component of the documentary we are definitely featuring in regards to the lack of awareness. And it's nobody's fault, it's just the way it's been set up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. With that said, what is your vision for this documentary? So, say, like in six months or a year, it's, you know, you've packaged it together, you've pitched it to all of the people that, you know, the powers that be, and say that it's going out there. What would you hope that the impact is, and or what's your vision for it? And what do you hope the impact is?

SPEAKER_01:

Our vision, speaking for both of us, I think is to get the conversation going. And, you know, personally, I'm very big on education. I think that, you know, kind of going off with doctors, like teachers should be educated. They see students all the time. And my our biggest thing is education and conversation. I think that it gets started and people are more compassionate to each other.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And I would love to see it on a global platform because it is a global issue, right? So see it around and getting people to talk about it, and then let's get change. We we're setting this up as a business as well to have execute action steps to make changes. So let's get the conversation going and then let's start doing some action steps to see things in a different light and get some results.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I think that's powerful too, talking about education, that piece. You know, I'm a mom of a five-year-old daughter, and you mentioned kids as young as five you've has haven't seen, you know, and this is going to be an ongoing thing, you know, with the pressures of society and peer pressures. How cool would it be to, you know, not just see it on a global scale, but locally, even in areas, schools where people are learning about this and teachers are learning about this, and they can have some sort of takeaway, you know, maybe a like a pamphlet, or you know, I mean, I'm not trying to have a vision for you, but I could see like how this can be so many different things. It's just incredibly powerful.

SPEAKER_02:

And we've actually have a plan for that.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02:

We do, because we thought we're the same way. We're parents. We're grandmother. I'm a grandmother. You have a child. We think of that, you know. That's why we're emotionally connected to this. And so we have thought, okay, we see that we need to tick tackle this phase, this phase, this phase, this age, you know, and who's all around them, and how do we educate around that? And the parents, the parents need tools to identify early on, right? And then the right tools to say the right things and to find the right people to help their child because the sooner it's detected, the easier treatment's hard, and the easier the treatment can be moving forward, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I also think, too, like my education on eating disorders, and I don't know about you, Jess, but it I think we watched a lifetime movie on a girl binging and purging. Yes, and hid it in her closet. Yeah, I probably and like they're like, This is eating disorders, and you're like, okay, like not doing that, cool, yeah, moving on. Yeah, but and then we learned about nutrition and calories, and we learned about how to count calories, but like what foods are good for you? What do foods do for you? Yeah, you know, so I think there's a lot of work to be done.

SPEAKER_02:

But we definitely want to have a video to be able to use in schools as well, yeah, along with the education. Yeah. Really important because they resonate with visuals, right? And we started the social media platform to have the conversation going there just to kind of well, you can't drown out all the other stuff that's going on because there's some really stuff on there that can be very triggering for people, but to help bring our platform in to help provide the alternatives.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That's what I was actually going to mention next, because I love that that your recovery besties, that that's amazing, you know, because as you mentioned, like, you know, counting calories or here's a pamphlet, or like it's very dry. But when you see people actually caring and have living it and sharing stories, not just of yourself, but of people, I think it's very welcoming. And it that is definitely to me, if I was struggling with an eating disorder or or anything, just to see people, women that are talking about it openly, but not in a, you know, a sob story way. It's it's more like, okay, this happened. This happened to me. I'm struggling with this, but I'm doing something about it. I would follow instantly. I mean, I think I am following. But so just tell me a little bit about that. Like the recovery besties. And I mean, do you have any plans for that beyond just Instagram or just seeing where it goes?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, I think, well, I kind of feel like I'm gonna say my age, but like we're in like honey, I shrunk the kids with like all this diet culture, and we're like, wait, love your money. But it's not even about that. But I think too, like Mindmaker's thing is not that I don't want people to feel bad for me that I went through it, but like I want people to see like you could get through the other side. Like I have a husband now, a beautiful son, you know, life is good. Like it doesn't have to be in and out of hospitals. And I think a lot of people get in that way. And there's not a lot of people that come out and show you what recovery can look like. They're just telling you to recover, and you're like, wait, what is that? What is like, what does that even mean? Yeah. So that was kind of the vision for it. And to kind of create a place where everyone could come together and ask questions and you know, from the the person that, you know, now I I don't want to say you were not like you're not educated because you were now educated on it, but like the person that's coming from like the stigma aversion versus someone who with lived experience, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. Right. I mean, I if I saw that, and I'm and I share it with people that make comments to me that don't know, right? They think they're not saying anything that's not hurtful, but it is. So I'm like, wait, watch Recovery Besties. At least it's a great place to start while we work on all the other things that we have going, you know, and we're gonna continue showing the behind the scenes as we get to shooting the dog, and then all the steps after, right? So we started it to bring a community together and get conversation going.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I love this conversation because like my next questions, like you mentioned, so it's like a perfect segue. So this is the last and to end this, just talking about community, because I think that's so crucial within this eating disorders or anything that you might be struggling with, knowing that there's a place someone can go to, whether it's on Instagram or watching a documentary for inspiration, or listening to the interviews, or reading something, what do you see this community, this global community, really as in the future?

SPEAKER_01:

I think that with eating disorders, there's this whole mentality of you have to be sick enough. And I think that comes from, you know, with insurance and all this stuff, like having to prove it. I always give this example, but and it's silly. But if you're a drug addict or alcoholic, they don't no one asks you to prove it. Right. That's true. So I think the goal would be to have an open and honest conversation and realize that everyone could struggle and giving them space and hearing them in their journey would be my biggest thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So and also for me, it's like people come up to me now and they're like, Well, I'm a little far removed, I don't have it. You know, well, yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad you don't have it, but somebody you know does, you just don't know it. And so this platform is a great tool and a continued tool for the community. But also, we found in all of our interviews, there isn't like when you mention alcohol and drugs, they have like AA where they can come together in different parts of the country. But there's really nothing like that for the eating disorder community after certain phases, right? So let's at least start conversation here and then we can branch off to providing service. Like that down the road, or immediately, whenever it's meant to be, right? To have people to have a place to go to feel safe to be able to share where they are right now and help them through something, going through whatever phase they are, or in families.

SPEAKER_00:

So awesome. Is there any place that I can find more information about your project? Or we're currently building that. We are.

SPEAKER_02:

So we have a website coming and it will be on Lotus Light Productions. And then the the documentaries right now titled Before the Clock Stops Ticking. Okay. And the greatest place to follow us right now is on your recovery besties. And then all of that information we'll be providing as we continue. We're we're in the midst of multiple layers of building this business. Think about that. That's pretty crazy. The two of us come together, we've known each other 20 years, and all of a sudden we have an idea and it's just exploded, you know. So you never know, you know, how impactful people's lives can be on you. And and you know, we feel big responsibility, but blessed to be have the this opportunity to do something.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, this has been an incredible conversation. I am blown away by the work that you've been able to accomplish already. I mean, 200 people and counting, I would assume, a thousand hours of 2000, 2000 hours. We have some editing. Editing work ahead, but that is, I mean, that's amazing. You know, when you just you literally are taking purpose and turning it into action. And that is inspiring. So I just thank you so much for being here. This has been All the Best with Jess, where we're talking with powerful women who are turning purpose into action and impact. And I'll see you on the next one.