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.

2/2010

Tolerating Your Emotions"

Your eating disorder has served as a means of managing uncomfortable, and sometimes overwhelming, emotions. The good news is that it helped you survive when you didn't know what else to do. The bad news is that repeatedly turning to food or restricting convinced you that you couldn't tolerate difficult feelings. In recovery, you discover that you can!

Acknowledging the feelings of life experiences doesn't make life itself easier. But it does smooth out the self-inflicted hardships that come from dodging and weaving to avoid feeling. Maybe your eating disorder has been your main buffer. Or maybe you've also relied on the use of substances, alcohol, or other addictive behaviors. You may protect yourself with the emotional disconnection allowed by dissociation. Or you may resort to workaholism. Whatever stops you from knowing your emotional experience of events is bound to make trouble for you in some way. You're also likely to be left with a sense of emptiness, as if a dimension of you or your life is missing.

Being able to tolerate your feelings means you don't have to do anything to get rid of them. Even the most upsetting ones are safe to acknowledge, in spite of the fact that they may be uncomfortable. Grief, disappointment, anger, humiliation, rejection . . . these emotions remain as yucky-feeling as ever. What changes is that you discover that you can manage them; you can tolerate being uncomfortable. And the more you work at it, the more discomfort you can handle, like the way your lungs expand when you've been working out regularly.

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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