Eating Disorders Anonymous: The Story of How We Recovered from Our Eating Disorders presents the accumulated experience, strength, and hope of many who have followed a Twelve-Step approach to recover from their eating disorders. Eating Disorders Anonymous (EDA), founded by sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), have produced a work that emulates the “Big Book” in style and substance. EDA respects the pioneering work of AA while expanding its Twelve-Step message of hope to include those who are religious or seek a spiritual solution, and for those who are not and may be more comfortable substituting “higher purpose” for the traditional “Higher Power.” Further, the EDA approach embraces the development and maintenance of balance and perspective, rather than abstinence, as the goal of recovery. Initial chapters provide clear directions on how to establish a foothold in recovery by offering one of the founder’s story of hope, and collective voices tell why EDA is suitable for readers with any type of problem eating, including: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating, and orthorexia. The text then explains how to use the Twelve Steps to develop a durable and resilient way of thinking and acting that is free of eating disordered thoughts and behaviors, including how to pay it forward so that others might have hope of recovery. In the second half of the text, individual contributors share their experiences, describing what it was like to have an eating disorder, what happened that enabled them to make a start in recovery, and what it is like to be in recovery. Like the “Big Book,” these stories are in three sections: Pioneers of EDA, They Stopped in Time, and They Lost Nearly All. Readers using the Twelve Steps to recover from other issues will find the process consistent and reinforcing of their experiences, yet the EDA approach offers novel ideas and specific guidance for those struggling with food, weight and body image issues. Letters of support from three, highly-regarded medical professionals and two, well-known recovery advocates offer reassurance that EDA’s approach is consistent with that supported by medical research and standards in the field of eating disorders treatment. Intended as standard reading for members who participate in EDA groups throughout the world, this book is accessible and appropriate for anyone who wants to recover from an eating disorder or from issues related to food, weight, and body image.

Daily positive thoughts offer insight and ideas for meeting the challenges of ongoing recovery from eating disorders. Find strength and renewal in recovery from eating disorders with the author of Food for Thought and explore your spiritual and personal development in recovery. The daily meditations found in Inner Harvest invite us to live more fully, encouraging us to continue living a life focused on healthy personal growth--not on food. The readings offer support for developing self-acceptance and the openness to build better relationships with others and our Higher Power.

In the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, a harrowing account of anorexia and addiction. She was a good girl from a good family, with everything she could want or need. But below the surface, she felt like she could never be good enough. Like she could never live up to the expectations that surrounded her. Like she couldn’t do anything to make a change. But there was one thing she could control completely: how much she ate. The less she ate, the better—stronger—she felt. But it’s a dangerous game, and there is such a thing as going too far… Her innermost thoughts and feelings are chronicled in the diary she left behind.

This book presents an implementation of psychodynamic self psychology in the treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, using a theoretical and therapeutic approach to examine the way that patients turn to food consumption or avoidance in order to supply needs they do not believe can be provided by human beings. The book starts with an overview of self psychology, presenting both the theory of self psychology and its specific application for the etiology and treatment of eating disorders. Featuring contributions from eating disorder professionals, the book then integrates this theory with 16 compelling case studies to explore how the eating-disordered patient is scared to take up space in a society that encourages precisely that. Professionals in the field of psychotherapy for eating disorders, as well as the entire community of psychotherapists, will benefit from the empirical capability of the theory to predict the development as well as remission from eating disorders.

A Process-Focused Guide to Treating Eating Disorders with ACT At some point in clinical practice, most therapists will encounter a client suffering with an eating disorder, but many are uncertain of how to treat these issues. Because eating disorders are rooted in secrecy and reinforced by our culture's dangerous obsession with thinness, sufferers are likely to experience significant health complications before they receive the help they need. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Eating Disorders presents a thorough conceptual foundation along with a complete protocol therapists can use to target the rigidity and perfectionism at the core of most eating disorders. Using this protocol, therapists can help clients overcome anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and other types of disordered eating. This professional guide offers a review of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a theoretical orientation and presents case conceptualizations that illuminate the ACT process. Then, it provides session-by-session guidance for training and tracking present-moment focus, cognitive defusion, experiential acceptance, transcendent self-awareness, chosen values, and committed action-the six behavioral components that underlie ACT and allow clients to radically change their relationship to food and to their bodies. Both clinicians who already use ACT in their practices and those who have no prior familiarity with this revolutionary approach will find this resource essential to the effective assessment and treatment of all types of eating disorders.

If your teen has an eating disorder—such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating—you may feel helpless, worried, or uncertain about how you can best support them. That’s why you need real, proven-effective strategies you can use right away. Whether used in conjunction with treatment or on its own, this book offers an evidence-based approach you can use now to help your teen make healthy choices and stay well in body and mind. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder will empower you to help your teen using a unique, family-based treatment (FBT) approach. With this guide, you’ll learn to respectfully and lovingly oversee your teen’s nutritional rehabilitation, which includes helping to normalize eating behaviors, managing meals, expanding food flexibility, teaching independent and intuitive eating habits, and using coping strategies and recovery skills to prevent relapse. In addition to helping parents and caregivers, this book is a wonderful resource for mental health professionals, teachers, counselors, and coaches who work with parents of and teens with eating disorders. It clearly outlines the principles of FBT and the process of involving parents collaboratively in treatment. As a parent, feeding your child is a fundamental act of love—it has been from the start! However, when a child is affected by an eating disorder, parents often lose confidence in performing this basic task. This compassionate guide will help you gain the confidence needed to nurture your teen and help them heal.

A shockingly honest, humorous, and powerful story of a woman's twenty-year struggle with anorexia, binge-eating, and bulimia that offers a comedic "been there" voice to help others recover. "I'm starving! Let's pop in here and get a burger," your friend says to you, which immediately makes her no longer your friend, because, unbeknownst to her, you have an eating disorder. You can't just eat. A burger. What goes down, in a disorderly mind? A burger, are you insane? Do you know how many grams of fat are in there? How many grams of fat are in there? And it comes on a bun. Bread?! Please! Why don't they make those lettuce-wrapped knockoffs anymore? Does the bathroom there lock? Crap, no! Maybe just a few fries. Mostly with ketchup. Ketchup's a vegetable, right? Why's this gotta be so hard?! It doesn't. But if you want to beat it, it can be just a little absurdly funny. Humor is seductive that way. While a sad skinny you-clutching a bowl of tears, blood, and vomit-is in no way funny (or seductive for that matter) my guess is if you've heard this mental soundtrack before it's because you, too, have an eating disorder that either has or will soon become full-blown bulimia. I'll bet you're also a high-performing, Type A person who hides stress well and has a lot of responsibility-corporate, domestic, dangerous, lucrative, or otherwise. Part of the reason you to got to that point is because you're incredibly hard on yourself. It is also the reason you're a little too good at being bulimic. But is it doing anything for you? Are you impressing anyone with your iron will and disgusting, unproductive routine? No. It's like volunteering to be Sisyphus but without arms. "I'll push the rock with my face and teeth, thank you." Because that's what you're doing. I hope something shifted in your brain just then and you finally saw (as I did, after twenty long years) that starving, stuffing, and punishing your body in an effort to try to look and feel good is just that: a joke. My goal is to expose the disease-its roots and progression, its pervasiveness, and its preposterous yet exceptionally-stubborn justifications-and give you the long-overdue perspective you need to overcome it, too. So, let's dig in. I need a big Tupperware tub and a spoon. You? What ... too soon?

Now in its second edition, this established text provides the practical information needed to treat patients with anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders. It is suitable for all health care professionals involved in eating disorder management, with special information provided for general practitioners, nurses, family carers and nutritionists.

This is the first authored volume to offer a detailed, integrated analysis of the field of eating problems and disorders with theory, research, and practical experience from community and developmental psychology, public health, psychiatry, and dietetics. The book highlights connections between the prevention of eating problems and disorders and theory and research in the areas of prevention and health promotion; theoretical models of risk development and prevention (e.g., developmental psychopathology, social cognitive theory, feminist theory, ecological approaches); and related research on the prevention of smoking and alcohol use. It is the most comprehensive book available on the study of prevention programs, especially for children and adolescents. The authors review the spectrum of eating problems and disorders, the related risk and protective factors, the models that have guided prevention efforts to date, the literature on the studies of prevention, and suggestions for curriculum and program development and evaluation. The book concludes with a new prevention program based on the Feminist Ecological Developmental model. The 800 + references highlight work done around the world. The Prevention of Eating Problems and Eating Disorders addresses: * methodologies for assessing and establishing prevention; * the implications of neuroscience for prevention; * dramatic increases in the incidence of obesity; * the role of boys, men, and the media on body image; * prevention programming for minority groups; and * whether to focus on primary or secondary prevention. Intended for clinicians and academicians from disciplines such as health, clinical, developmental, and community psychology; social work; medicine; and public health; this book is also an ideal text for advanced courses on eating disorders.