Surviving An Eating Disorder

Thoroughly revised and updated with the latest research and methodologies, the fourth edition of the classic guide written specifically for parents, friends, and caregivers of individuals with eating disorders. For more than thirty years, this classic guide has been an essential resource for the “silent sufferers”—those affected by a loved one’s eating disorder. This revised edition put family and friends at the center of the treatment process, providing the latest information on the methods and practices available to facilitate the recovery process. Surviving an Eating Disorder is the first book for family and friends to use a psychological perspective to understand eating disorders. Other treatment manuals or self-help books propose change but Surviving is the first to consider why change can be so hard for everyone involved. The factors that can hinder progress are discussed and the methods that can work are emphasized. Illustrated with case examples, this fourth edition explains the latest treatments and provides the necessary tools to carefully evaluate what can be most effective for each reader’s individual care. The authors offer concrete advice and support, urging readers to care for both themselves and their relationships as they support their loved ones struggling with food and eating issues. With its combination of information, insight, and practical strategies, Surviving an Eating Disorder considers crisis as opportunity—a time for the possibility of hope and change for everyone involved.

When a friend or family member shows signs of an eating disorder, the first impulse is to charge in, give advice, and fix what is wrong. But these tactics-however well-intentioned-can backfire. This compassionate guide offers ways to tackle the tough topics of body image, media messages, physical touch, diets, and exercise-along with a special section on talking about these issues with children. It includes information about when to get professional help, how to handle emergencies, and answers to difficult questions such as "Am I too fat?" or "Is this ok to eat?"

This memoir chronicles the unique ordeals of identical twin sisters Diana and Julia Lockwood. Even among twins, Diana and Julia were especially close and deeply entwined--they were more than just sisters or best friends, they were like one soul in two bodies. While their total attunement sometimes saved them in funny and unexpected ways, it also eventually destroyed them. A survivor of sexual assault and anorexia and living with Asperger's, the author tells her own life story while weaving Julia's letters and journal entries into the text. While Diana survived the struggles that led her to three suicide attempts, her twin unfortunately took her own life only a year after their father did the same. This book explores the life and relationship of twins separated by tragedy and follows a woman's struggle to make it on her own.

GROWING UP, DINA PESTONJI was afforded all the comfort, love and affection anyone could ask for. She should have been a happy, carefree girl. But from the age of 10, she felt uncomfortably "different," like an ugly brown duckling in a sea of perfect girls with white skin and blue eyes. In this powerful, brutally honest memoir, Dina vividly describes the losing battle that engulfed her mind and body--one with a hateful, self-loathing and cruel inner critic. Consumed by a misguided obsession with fitting in, being exceptional and "perfect," she unknowingly allowed a deep self-hatred to set in over the years--a hatred that not even her acceptance at the swankiest schools nor a dream job in California could change. Only after surviving a horrific car crash and a paralyzing stroke while still in her 20s, did she begin to see herself for who she really was: strong, independent, a fighter...blessed. Surviving Myself is the captivating, emotionally charged story of the author's journey to self-acceptance and inner peace, narrated with the refreshing candour of a close friend. Alternately humourous, shocking and heartbreaking, it is also the story of a family's overflowing love.

Surviving an Eating Disorder has become a classic since it was first published in 1988. It was one of the first books to offer effective support and solutions for family, friends, and all others who are the "silent sufferers" of eating disorders. This updated and revised edition provides the latest information on how parents, spouses, friends, and professionals can thoughtfully determine the right course of action in their individual situations. With its combination of information, insight, case examples, and practical strategies, Surviving an Eating Disorder opens the way to new growth and helpful solutions in your relationship with your loved one.

Are you struggling with Family Based Treatment? Family Based Treatment (FBT) is viewed as the gold standard in treating adolescent Anorexia Nervosa and it currently produces the best evidence-based outcomes. However, the treatment is intensive and many parents commence unprepared despite their courage and willingness to take on the task of refeeding their ill child to health. Parents have desperately asked for more information to help them understand anorexia's grip on their child and to survive the intensity of the treatment. This book was written to give these parents the tools to help them "see it through" to the end. This "skills-based manual" clearly explains the treatment, providing invaluable information to help parents through each component. It outlines the obstacles and all the anorexic behaviors that will impede treatment and recovery. The aim of this manual is to ensure parents remain one step ahead of anorexia and that they "hit the ground running." This book is a valuable resource for parents commencing FBT and for parents struggling during treatment. It offers clear, practical advice and empowers parents to confront whatever the illness throws at them. It is also an important resource for clinicians and will help them guide their families through treatment.

Description This book includes a true story about reaching the very edge, the very depths and heights of bipolar illness, but almost always with a sense of humour. Much like a car crash, people cannot help but look when they spy on these sort of black events. It is a new perspective on manic depression as in Prof K.R. Jamison's autobiography about her illness in An Unquiet Mind, but mixed explosively with S. Kaysen's immersion into madness in Girl, Interrupted; except this book feels like it's been written whilst on crack-cocaine and directed by Quentin Tarantino on a blood-thirsty day. This book may be dark but its underlying message is one of hope. Sometimes you have to see the depths of Hades before you can really appreciate life and health. Being a manic depressive from just 5, then adding in anorexia, bulimia, self-harm and hundreds of suicide attempts, "typical" student substance misuse on the heavy end of "normal," culminating in a long hospitalisation when I was an Oxford doctoral student in clinical medicine. I ended up totally "mad," in a long-term psychotic mixed episode (being both manic and depressed concurrently, and suffering from delusions and hallucinations) and several actual deaths that I was revived from. This had a massive impact on the lives of my friends and family who have been dragged through 25 years of serious illness whilst feeling helpless and scared. I also experienced a lot of unhelpful medical treatment and misdiagnoses - all detailed here, which should teach those in the profession what not to do. This book will also answer the questions of friends and family, and give some pointers of ways to help and not help. I lost many friends as I withdrew into my illness, but I made many friends with people similarly ill. Some have died, some have recovered, and some remain ill. All agree that such a complete and honest book like mine is needed. This is my autobiographical tale, a girl who came from nowhere "up North" to study medicine at Oxford University and spent the majority of her life quite literally mad, but never stopped laughing about it. This suits a wide audience for personal and professional reasons. I want to reach sufferers, carers, and professionals. I am proof that anything can be overcome, what should not be survived can be, and that nothing is more important in these diseases than hope. About the AuthorKaty Sara Culling was born in Liverpool, North England, in 1975. Daughter of Sue and Paul Culling, her family moved back to its roots in Derbyshire, where she grew up along with her younger sister Beth, in the village of Castle Donington, on the Derbyshire-Leicestershire border. However, even as young as 5 she exhibited symptoms of bipolar disorder. She attended a private school for girls, Loughborough High School, where she was a high achieving student. Unfortunately, due to bullying and also to numb her mania and depression, she developed anorexia nervosa and began to self-harm. Katy Sara then went to The University of Nottingham, where she studied Biochemistry and Nutrition. She did her (1st class) thesis on alcohol and metabolism, interested in the psychology of Alcoholism. All this was done despite considerable illness including over 60 suicide attempts and purging-type anorexia - and yet more bullying. Her good work at Nottingham lead to an offer of a place at The University of Oxford, where she studied for a PhD (DPhil) in Clinical Medicine. In her final year she became so ill with bipolar disorder that she was in hospital (first as a day patient, then an inpatient, and eventually a sectioned inpatient). During that year and a half she attempted suicide over 300 times, dying twice, only to be revived. She finally, at the age of 28 got a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the correct medication, and has been mostly fine ever since. She later wrote up her PhD thesis and published her results. Now Katy Sara is mostly well and has become a writer, wanting to prevent othe