Review by anonymous:

I’ve been suffering from bulimia for 12 years. This workbook is helping me finally get control of my illness and my life. The exercises are extremely beneficial for understanding the feelings behind my destructive actions and (more importantly) how to change them. I would recommend this book to anyone who is or knows someone who is bulimic. It is truly saving my life.

Review by :

From start to finish this book is packed with useful, informative and best of all, unintimidating tools that are extremely helpful. This book offers insight into the distorted thoughts that accompany eating disorders. By understanding what is going on in your mind, you can learn to change the way you see both yourself and the effects of your eating disorder. I highly recommend this book to anyone suffering with an eating disorder or to anyone who knows someone who is. Reading this book truly changed my life, and for the first time in four years I am actually living a healthy and fufilling lifestyle.

Review by Dom A.:

Bulimics on Bulimia is a collection of 19 personal accounts from Bulimic individuals. This book surpasses others because it is told while the women are in the disorder.

The complexity and difficulty of recovery is truly visible when told by people who are NOT recovered. Hopefully, this book will shed some light on this serious illness.

The book is unique because it tries to bring attention to bulimia. Most media stories focus more on anorexia (even if the individual is also bulimic). These women discuss how the supposed “inferiority” of bulimia causes even greater self hate and damage.

This book does not have the luxury of a sensational story line, or the confessions of famous women.Instead it shows the secret lives of women (and men) who live amongst us. The success of this book relies on people who care enough to learn about the secret torment of regular women.

Review by Breda Maguire:

really enjoyed this book, was easy read, and gives great insight into the world of ED’s. might be unhealthy for people who engage in ED behaviours… some people may find it triggering..

Review by B. Munson:

When I read Lori’s book, I knew it would be very helpful to people who are suffering with bulimia and eating disorders. I was delighted to discover how helpful it also is to those of us who think we have a good life and haven’t considered what we can do to make it better. Lori Hanson shows us the power in being courageous, sticking to our goals, fighting the good fight and never giving up. Brave and important lessons for anyone! Her advice and perspectives on alternative health options were a surprise bonus, and I copied down many of her suggestions and resources. I know we will be hearing a lot more from Lori Hanson in the future.

–Barbara Munson, [...]

Review by Shannon Cutts:

I met Lori at an eating disorders conference and immediately sensed that she was a powerful voice for those who need to know that recovery is possible, and that each recovery process is unique. Through sharing her intense, at times painful, at times thrilling, personal journey with us all, she challenges us to break down stereotypes and embrace the uniqueness of our own journey. Lori’s courage in never accepting defeat, seeking out new methods when what she tried wasn’t working, and never giving up, lights the path for us all. She is an inspiration and so is her book!

Shannon Cutts, www.key-to-life.com

Founder of MentorCONNECT: Where Relationships Replace Eating Disorders

Beating Ana: How to Outsmart Your Eating Disorder and Take Your Life Back

Review by :

I think of this book as my bible and carry it around with me whereever I go. It helped me understand my illness and gave me specific things to do in my recovery. I felt like the authors were speaking to me like best friends or mentors. I highly recommed this book for anyone dealing with bulimia!

Review by :

This book leapt out at me at the bookstore 12 days ago. I bought it at a time when I was binging/purging several times daily and I was beginning to feel that I could never stop. I hated myself and what my life was all about. Although this book and its message takes real effort and commitment, it really worked for me! I am now 12 days into the program and have not binged for the entire 12 days. It hasn’t always been easy, but this book offers great, practical advice (such as “things to do instead of binging” sections for each day). I like that the authors really focus on trying to accept your body and self the way it is, understanding that, for the bulimic, food is not really the problem. Please, if you are feeling desparate and like you have nowhere to turn, buy this book and give it a try. You are worthwhile and you can do it!

Review by Jelly Bean:

I have struggled with bulimia for 7 years. i am not recovered yet. But i am trying to read books to guide me through my recovery process. This book is so touching. Jocelyn is real. She openly shares her most humiliating experiences and the miricals that have helped her recover. Eating disorders are, for many of us, an outlet for expressing emotions. Suffers dont know how to express emtions in a “normal” way. We resort to controlling our eating behavior. Jocelyn’s story helped me find the reasons i chose to resort to bulimia. It also gave me a a sense of courage that no other book or story has ever given. Jocelyn’s story is worth reading. It can help anyone struggling. I wish I could meet this woman with such strength.

Review by Josh Havassy:

I’ve worked with hundreds of women suffering from bulimia at an inpatient treatment facility. This book does a very good job elegantly describing a very non-elegant disease. The author takes you through the emotional and day to day details of her bulimia from a child well into her adulthood with an important honesty and a pleasing writing style. She describes the onset subtly and poignantly and she spares no detail when writing about her lowest moments in the disorder. The ending, and her recovery, are inspiring but not sappy and unlike other books she describes the recovery process rather than glossing over it. This book is not perfect and drags at points, but the author does not let those moments last long. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about eating disorders and anyone suffering from one.

Review by Gaston Baslet:

“The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bulimia” is a hands-on workbook for individuals who suffer from bulimia nervosa that can be used alone or can accompany a formal treatment program with a mental health professional. The book has eleven chapters that cover a psychoeducational piece, purpose and behavioral pattern identification, training in and integration of all four DBT skills and maintenance and relapse strategies. The exercises throughout the book facilitate understanding of the concepts, which could otherwise be difficult to grasp for individuals who have never been in treatment. This, coupled with numerous clinical examples, highlights the practical, hands-on nature of the volume. The ultimate premise of DBT, “to create a life worth being present in” is frequently brought up, reminding the reader of the long-term gains they could achieve with treatment. Special acknowledgment should be given to the authors for the clarity in their explanations and the adaptation of DBT to this particular clinical population. Clinicians working with eating disordered patients will find that the book is an excellent tool for patient as an extension of their treatment and for themselves as a resource to expand their technical repertoire. Individuals with bulimia will have a better understanding of the work ahead towards recovery; reading this workbook and putting the skills into practice can very well serve as their first step in the recovery pathway.

Gaston Baslet, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago

Review by E. Clerkin:

“The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bulimia,” by Drs. Ellen Astrachan-Fletcher and Michael Maslar, is a much needed adaptation of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) for bulimia. This self-help workbook not only outlines the essential DBT “modules,” including Mindfulness Skills, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, and Interpersonal Skills, but it also does a nice job orienting individuals to both DBT and bulimia. Further, the book is filled with useful and practical hands-on examples, activities, and vignettes to facilitate learning and teach individuals to synthesize their DBT skills. Much like the therapy it is based off of, this workbook takes a nonjudgmental yet encouraging and motivating stance. If used effectively and consistently, the tools in this workbook *will* help in the recovery from bulimia.

While this book is marketed as a “self-help workbook,” it is important to highlight that it can be used by treatment providers. As a clinician, I have found that this workbook provides a welcome method for facilitating DBT informed treatment (both individual and group). It is especially useful in translating basic DBT skills for the specific population of individuals suffering from disordered eating.

Review by M. Garrison:

There are a lot of YA books out there set in inpatient psychiatric treatment, especially for eating disorders — enough so that it’s almost a sub-genre of its own at this point. And as books in this category go, this one has a lot going for it — there are some compelling characters, the book goes well beyond the obvious cliches, and the hospital staff and treatment process are portrayed more realistically than in most books.

All that said, there were two things about this book that I really disliked:

1) A large chunk of the “plot” is just Janie (the main character) not telling the reader things that she knows. Especially when a book is written in 1st person, I find this a really old trick — there is so much room here for a real plot that there’s really no excuse for this.

2) Probably because of the above, the ending seems artificially quick and easy.

Review by The Story Siren:

This one has been sitting on my shelf for a long time. I’m not sure why I was so apprehensive about reading it. I think I was scared after reading Wintergirls by Laure Halse Anderson. I have to be in a mood for books that drain me emotionally like that. Wintergirls was difficult to read, and I don’t think I was ready to tackle something like that again so soon.

But Purge was a lot different than Wintergirls. Besides the fact that it’s about Bulimia and not Anorexia, it also very easy to read. Not saying that it was “enjoyable” to read about girls struggling with their body weight, but I enjoyed Janie as a character and I reading her story.

I loved that this was about more than just Janie’s struggle, this novel really shows that eating disorders are a universal epidemic. That it’s not only girls, there are boys too, that it’s not only teens, there are adults as well.

It’s heartbreaking to know that the author used her personal experience to write this novel. But I’m glad she shared her experience and hopefully has been an inspiration. Despite the topic of this novel, it had an uplifting message.

Review by :

I have 9 years of experience with bulimia of a family member and also teach others about eating disorders. This is a tremendous resource. It’s very well written!

Review by :

Our daughter was lucky enough to have been treated by Drs. Thompson and Sherman and she was able to overcome this dreadful eating disorder. Even with their personal attention, we found their book was a wealth of information, advice and pure hope for all of us. If you can’t speak directly with the authors, reading the book will certainly be of help on the road to a cure.

Review by Kali:

This is not a sentimental book about a girl who finds out she has an eating disorder and over comes it against all odds. It’s not a feel good book in any sense of the word.

The author is aware that she she still is a prisoner to her illness but what she has done is come to terms with it; Anorexia and Bulimia are still millstones around her neck but this book is her way of dealing with this burden.

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher is not an easy book to read, not because the author makes the subject she is talking about complex, rather it is a brutally honest picture into a life governed by eating, puking, starving, eating, starving, puking, a vicious in which there seems to be no escape.

The author looks carefully into her childhood, her teenage years, her adult life, her relationship with her volatile family, her own detachment from herself as a woman in a man’s world.

I couldn’t read this book in one sitting, I had to do it in stages, it is powerful stuff, I have an eating disorder, and I can relate to some of the thing Marya is saying, especially about how you fit your sickness to suit your life and how you learn to be devious, to hide if from those around you, how the lies you tell are lies that you want to believe and so they become the truth.

This is another book that we should give teenage girls to read because I think that it just might sway some of them from taking the road that Marya took and barely survived going down.

An incredible, disgusting, compulsive, painful, and totally addictive read about a subject most of us would rather avoid if we could.

Review by :

First of all, I would like to say that I really loved Marya’s very candid and real way of writing. She didn’t candy-coat or tip-toe — she told the truth. And she told it very well. My warning though is that, as someone who has struggled for a long time with an eating disorder myself, many of us with ED’s have considered “Wasted” to be a how-to guide for starting/maintaining an ED. Be careful. If you are vulnerable even a little bit, please save this read for a later, more stable time in your life/recovery. I do think it is a good eye-opener for parents and other loved ones of someone battling an ED. Not only does it supply the many, many twisted and secretive symptomatic behaviors we tend to engage in, but it also gives a very honest look at the emotions and issues behind the disorder. It’s not about the food, or the weight, or the size. It’s just a mask for something much more severe. We’ve had to resort to using our bodies to communicate instead of our voices. We lost our voice somewhere along the way, and the body became our target.
I don’t feel the book itself is inherently bad or dangerous or whatever. I do, however, recommend EXTREME caution and consideration before reading this. Be careful. Be wise.

Review by K. Harris:

Through the years, I have had several friends with anorexia and/or bulimia–so when I saw this HBO documentary, I thought I’d give it a look. “Thin” tells the story of Florida’s Renfrew Center which is a treatment facility for eating disorders. Following four women specifically, we see some of their emotional highs and lows and the Center’s process of recovery in great detail. I’ve always associated eating disorders with younger (college or high school age) women, so for me it was fascinating to see the diverse cross section of older and even well-established women facing these issues.

The women are candid and it seems as if we have an all access look into their lives. Particularly interesting to me is how supportive friendships can be formed–but in some cases, those can also be enabling. One clique, in particular, starts to take on a negative image when they start disregarding the rules. The sincerity of some of the women wanting to get well is always a question–some work the program hard, some fight it. And the staff must be caring, yet tough enough to cut through the hypocrisy and deception. “Thin” also gives us a glimpse into some of the family dynamics which might have helped to trigger these illnesses. One of the most memorable moments for me is when a mother came to visit. She sits down to lunch with her daughter who is required to eat, and she disparages and picks apart the food served. She is absolutely oblivious to the negative implication this might have on her daughter.

Near the beginning of the picture, one of the women remarks about her life–”I used to have a personality.” This is an interesting and powerful idea. The women in trouble have gotten so caught up in their illnesses, they’ve forgotten how to live. And this notion is repeated throughout by many of the patients. In one of the more moving confessions, one 25 year old patient speculates what her life might have been like had she gotten treatment when she was 15. It’s so emotionally raw (she is trying to convince 15 year old Brittany to take advantage of her youth) because she recalls all the normalcy and joy she has missed out on.

Ultimately, this is a documentary. There is no happy Hollywood conclusion, just an insightful look into an all too prevalent problem. KGHarris, 11/06.

Review by Diana Scherff:

I definitely agree that this documentary is limited in it’s portrayal of the “reality” of eating disorders and treatment. For several reasons, this still isn’t the ULTIMATE look into the lives of eating disordered patients, though it’s the best to date. Patients do die as a result of eating disorders, 7%-10%, a fact that is not made out as a very serious in this film, any one of the women portrayed were on the brink when they arrived. You lose the fact that most eating disorder patients, patients with symptoms as serious as those of Shelly and even those with less serious symptoms, spend their ENTIRE LIVES fighting. Spending years in many different types of treatment, being treated, inside & outside residential treatment centers, as if they should “just eat” because family members and friends don’t understand. As frustrated as those around us can get, understanding the thinking seems to be harder than most any other “mental” illness, because why can’t we “just eat?” I think this film does a good job of portraying how nurses and other personnel act towards patients, and how patients, both inside and outside of treatment, feel that they are not only misunderstood, but basically treated as though our illnesses are just a burden, so “get over it” so to speak, when in fact it is MUCH more complicated.

The only other thing left out of this movie is the fact that men can also have eating disorders and that there are treatment centers out there that are for males AND females, though many are just for females. From my viewpoint, the film also shows the importance of small 6-8 patient residential treatment centers since at least three of the four patients left too abruptly and returned to their disordered behavior immediately after leaving treatment. Such a large group as The Renfrew Center allows “cliques” to form, rivalries, and lack of trust which is a major source treatment failure because patients won’t open up to one another. In regards to the facility in this film, the life of a patient is also limited, whereas other treatment centers with fewer patients find help not just through talking & eating together, but through learning how to be comfortable with everyday tasks like grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, finding hobbies that bring them joy, and many other “outings” to treat the whole person and prepare them for a completely new (and hopefully improved) life without an eating disorder.

The description above “Thin offers hope, but no happily-ever-after ending for these women” is truely the lesson of the disorder and of this film. Like alcoholism, you never truely “recover,” but if you are one of the lucky ones, you can reach a state of constantly being “in recovery,” always with starvation and purging in the back of your mind.

Insurance companies today have somehow moved up in rank over our doctors, telling us when we’re well, what medications we can take, and what treatments will work, despite the fact that they don’t know us, don’t have medical degrees, and don’t know anything about anything. The statement made “People treat it like a cold, but it’s more like cancer” is not only how PEOPLE treat eating disorders, but how INSURANCE treats them. This film should stand as a testament to all eating disorders who are still struggling due to insurance companies who WON’T LET US GET HELP.