On this page you'll find:

• An introduction to Eating Disorders for Dummies
• A free monthly excerpt straight from the pages of Eating Disorders for Dummies
• A table of contents so you can see at a glance all the great topics covered in Eating Disorders for Dummies
• Access to free printable worksheets to help you track your recovery progress

 

Introduction

Think you—or someone you love—has an eating disorder?

This practical, reassuring guide explains anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder in plain English. You'll also learn about related disorders such as "bigorexia" and compulsive exercise. Informative checklists help you determine your own eating disorder risk. Plus, you'll discover how to assemble a treatment team, find the right therapist, evaluate the latest treatments, and support your own or your loved one's recovery in day-to-day living.

Discover how to:

• Identify eating disorder warning signs
• Recognize companion disorders
• Handle emotional eating
• Survive setbacks
• Approach someone who needs treatment
• Treat disorders in men, children, performers, middle-aged and elderly people and other special populations.

Monthly Excerpt

Updated 4th Friday of each month!
See, also, our other regularly updated website offerings.

7/2010

First things first...but what comes first?

Eating disorders seldom travel alone. They usually come with one or more companion disorders. Examples include alcohol and drug abuse, compulsive exercise, depression, OCD and anxiety.

When a therapist or psychopharmacologist evaluates your situation, she looks for the presence of any of these companion disorders. They need to be treated too. Recovery from your eating disorder may partly depend on improvement in companion disorders.

The problem is that you can't do everything at once! Some components of your treatment have to be addressed before others. But how do you decide what comes first? Though the answers depend on your particular situation, here are a few general guidelines:

• Behaviors that are the most self-destructive come first. If drug or alcohol addiction is threatening your job, your family, or your legal status, you need to focus on these conditions before you tackle the less destructive ones.
   
• Behaviors and conditions that alter your brain come first. Anything that interferes with participation in your recovery work has to be a priority in your treatment. This includes the starvation state as well as mind-altering substances. Severe states of depression and anxiety also fall in this category.
   
• Out-of-control bingeing and/or purging usually demand an early, structured intervention. Whether inpatient or outpatient, a more intensive symptom focus is usually necessary when symptoms are severe. With mild or moderate symptoms, you can afford to see if they get better in a less symptom-focused treatment.
   
• Out-of-control eating disorder symptoms coexisting with out-of-control companion disorder behaviors usually require an inpatient setting for treatment. With this combination, you have too much room for harm and too few resources for getting better. You need some outside containment until you can supply more of your own.
   
• Treatment for underlying trauma usually comes later in your treatment, after you've created some external and internal stability. Trauma treatment can be overwhelming. You need to be confident you've accumulated the resources you need to manage whatever comes up.

Often treatment for one disorder helps with another. For example, if you're medicated for depression, the same medication may help you with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. Similarly, meditation and self-soothing techniques you use towork on your addiction are also useful in recovering from your eating disorder.

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Contents

Part I: The Eating Disorders: An All-Consuming World of Their Own

Part I helps you really get what eating disorders are about.

• Chapter 1 gives you the big picture and previews the rest of the book.
• Chapters 2 to 4 introduce you to the three major eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Each chapter comes with a questionnaire to help you judge whether you're at risk for the disorder described.
• Chapter 5 reviews the risk factors that make you vulnerable to developing an eating disorder in the first place.
• In Chapter 6 you can find out about the physical toll eating disordered behavior takes on your body.
• Chapter 7 describes other psychological disorders that typically accompany an eating disorder, such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and compulsive exercise.

Part II: Getting Well: Exploring Recovery and Treatment Options

Part II is your treatment handbook.

• Chapter 8 provides a map of recovery goals. You'll know what you're aiming at.
• Chapter 9 goes over all your treatment options. Includes treatment experts and facilities and a discussion of why you might choose each.
• Chapter 10 helps you pick the approach to individual therapy that's right for you. It takes you right inside an imaginary session for each approach.
• Chapters 11 and 12 explore additional options: family, couple, and group therapies; support groups; medication; and online treatments.
• In Chapter 13 I help you think about your own role in using treatment and getting better.
• Chapter 14 focuses on managing early stage recovery, including dealing with relapse.

Part III: Eating Disorders in Special Populations

This part focuses on special groups in the population who are at high risk for eating disorders or whose eating disorder risk has been under-recognized. I highlight special treatment considerations for each group. These groups include:

• Men
• Athletes
• Dancers, models, and actors
• Children
• Middle-aged and elderly people
• People who are obese

Part IV: Advice and Help for Families and Others Who Care

Part IV provides help for families and other people who care about someone with an eating disorder.
This how-to part includes:

• Getting informed
• Approaching someone for the first time about their eating disorder
• Managing day-to-day life in recovery
• Checking in with your own well-being and finding the services you may need to support it

Part V: The Part of Tens

This For Dummies tradition is your at-a-glance part for quick ideas to inspire you or keep you on track in recovery.

• Ten Don'ts remind you of recovery-interfering thoughts and behaviors.
• Ten Do's give you the other side of the coin: ten thoughts and practices to keep your recovery cooking

Resource Guide

• Web Sites for Eating Disorder Information
• Web Sites for Finding Treatment
• Web Sites for Finding Local Support Groups
• Finding Online Treatment and Support
• Web Sites for Size-Acceptance and Self-Esteem
• Self-Help Books