Book Description
At sixteen, Billie Weinstein has plenty of problems: She's the only Jewish girl living in the all-Italian neighborhood of West Berry, NJ; she's trying hard to please her know-it-all father who listens to opera at full volume and drives full speed, and her too-accommodating mother who is either taking care of Billie's father, or Billie and her sister, or the two dogs; and on top of everything else, her older sister Cassie goes off to college, leaving Billie to fend for herself.



And now Billie's studying for the SATs. The task her father has given her is to learn twenty words a day, read the New York Times at least twice a week and watch Masterpiece Theatre whenever he tells her to, mostly because he likes it. Then Billie discovers her sister's secret: Cassie is battling anorexia and Billie's parents excuse Cassie's weight loss as stress due to the competitive atmosphere at college. Billie knows something is drastically wrong with her sister; something that could be fatal.



This novel is touching and funny and moving, and it got great reviews. And Billie Weinstein is so wry and humorous a protagonist, she's the kind of girl every woman wishes she'd had as a best friend growing up. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

excellent book..bad ending
I really loved this book. I read it everyday and minute I could. It was well written and a great story that kept me wanting to read on. I was nearing the end and it felt so much like it would have a big surprise ending.It didnt really end and I wanted some of my questions to be answered that werent but all in all a great read.

This was a really good book
I only realised a few weeks after I finished this book just how impressed I was by it.In the last few months I've read quite a few books dealing with the subject of Anorexia, and this was one of the ones that I thought gave the topic just the right mix of simplicity and horror.Simplicity because it is just so easy to slip into something like this and so simple, as a family, to not see what is right in front of you before it is - perhaps - too late; and horror because, out of so many things, anorexia truly attacks your mind, just as much as your body.

I thought this book was beautifully written.

I devoured this book
It's been a long time since I've picked up a book and read non-stop the way I read, "My Sister's Bones," by Cathi Hanauer. There are so many things I liked about it, but it was primarily the excellent, utterly readable writing. There is nothing excessive--each word counts in this first person story of Billie Weinstein and her struggle through family life as a sixteen year old girl. I assume this story takes place in the 1970s, given all the references, yet because it is written in first person and doesn't give off even a trace of nostalgia, I had the feeling that I was in the same room as Billie as she told her tale in present tense.

Billie's beautiful and intelligent older sister, Cassie, suffers from anorexia. Hanauer expertly details the emotions brought on by this disease on behalf of each of the family members: Billie's fear for her sister, her parents' denial and debate over treatment, and Cassie's deterioration. But this is not Cassie's story. This is Billie's story and it's about so much more than her sister's anorexia. Billie is a rather typical suburban teenager, coping not only with her sister's illness, but also with pressure from her parents to do well on the SAT test, learning how to drive, dealing with a popular boyfriend who wants more from her than she's willing to give, and a best friend with a colorful family who simply disappears one day . . .

One can't help but fall in love with Billie. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her story and because of Hanauer's talent for storytelling, I look forward to reading more of her work.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group.

Karen's Review of My Sister's Bones
The book My Sister's Bones by Cathi Hanauer is a compelling story about a sixteen-year old girl Billie and her life as she deals with her sister's anorexia, school, life and boys.
Billie has noticed that recently her sister Cassandra is acting strange. She is giving away all her clothes, acting frantic and loosing an unhealthy amount of weight at the college that she has recently started attending. Billie has trouble with this because Cassandra has confided in her and told her about her problems but Billie feels obligated to tell her parents.
Instead Billie tells her new Boyfriend Vinnie, and her best friend Tiffany. They try to comfort her but she is disturbed by images that she sees in a book about anorexia. Her sister ends up in a hospital and receives treatment for her disease. Billie's life starts to spin out of control as Vinnie pressures her to do things that she doesn't want to do. As a teenager in high school, Billie is desperate to fit in. She feels like she is the only virgin in her school. She wants to have sex to fit in and please Vinnie, but in her heart she knows that she is not ready to take a step like this. She is no longer able to confide in her best friend Tiffany because her and her family disappear without a trace. Billie is worried that they have gotten into some trouble with the law because Tiffany's father has a questionable business. Billie goes to Tiffany's house and discovers that nobody is there. It is a mess and it appears that they left in a hurry.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with or knows somebody who has anorexia. I liked this book because it dealt with many issues that teenage girls face such as body image, stress, sex, sisterhood, friendship, and growing up. I would recommend this book to teen-aged girls because it provides many examples of what to do and what not to do when dealing with the stresses of being a teen-ager. It is important for women to read this book because it provides us with perspective that we would not usually be able to see and allows us to see similarities to ourselves so that we can better change and understand our thoughts,feelings and actions.

Not Just a Story About Anorexia
I picked up this book expecting to read a book about anorexia told by the person with the disorder who focused solely on the effects of anorexia on herself. That is why when I discovered that Billie (the sister of Cassandra, the anorexic) was the narrator of the story, I was a little surprised.

Billie is sixteen when her sister Cassie goes off to college at Cornell, which is referred to in the book by Billie as 'Corn Hell', by the prompting of her docter father. A little before Christmas break, Billie recieves a phone call from Cassie that truly disturbs her. Over Christmas break Cassie looks way too thin and becomes withdrawn from all of her old friends and family. Her father blames it all on exams and the stress of college. Billie knows it is something more complicated.

Although the main point of this story is about how Billie and her family deal with Cassie's anorexia, My Sister's Bones is also about Billie discovering herself in a divided town when she has no upbringing true to any one race/religion (her father is Jewish by birth but he never raised his kids that way). She finds comfort in her best friend Tiffany, learns why giving up Vinnie was a mistake, and realizes that Dominick is not all what he seems to be.

The uncertainty of Billie is easy to relate to and the story line itself is definitely complex and compelling enough to scare anyone out of becoming anorexic. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who needs a thought-provoking novel or insight into how much anorexia really hurts the person and their family and friends around them. ... Read more

Book Description
A young ballet dancer finds her life sliding down a dangerous slope of eating disorders, amphetamine abuse, self-hatred and denial, until hospitalization becomes necessary in order for her to survive. Young adult fiction. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a personal and comprehensive account of the symptoms, causes and treatments of the life-threatening disorder, anorexia nervosa. The author, a recovered anorexic, draws upon her own life experience with the disorder and with treatment, and has combined this with extensive research.Avis Rumney explores the cultural and family origins of anorexia, and anorexic's characteristic problems-perfectionism, competition, body image, sexuality and fear of growing up. The criteria for curing anorexia are given and several forms of treatment are compared, including psychotherapy, behavior modification, drug therapy and family therapy. The transactional analysis-oriented program in which the author was cured is described, as is her own model for the treatment of anorexia nervosa. ... Read more

Book Description

Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa is an indispensable guide for sufferers, their friends and families, those in the helping professions, and anyone seeking a better understanding of this disorder. It provides descriptions of the eating habits and the underlying psychological and social problems which can result in a preoccupation with body image, enabling those seeking help to make sense of what they or someone close to them is experiencing.

Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa incorporates insights from cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been established internationally as a key method for helping overcome longstanding conditions such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and eating disorders. This kind of therapy focuses on alleviating symptoms by changing negative patterns in the way people think.People with an eating disorder, for example, may have a distorted view of their body, even though this perception isn't based on any real facts. The aim of cognitive therapy is to uncover this faulty thinking pattern and change such thoughts.

This self-help guide is written expressly for those who want to tackle their problem on their own, without formal treatment. Written by an expert clinical psychologist, it is meant to help readers to take control of their own recovery. It offers a complete step-by-step program to recovery, using clinically proven cognitive therapy methods.

Book Description
Written by a mother whose daughter suffers from an eating disorder, Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa is a supportive, helpful guide for families of those with eating disorders. Framed by the personal story of Gráinne Smith and her daughter, the book describes the onset and symptoms of the two disorders, as well as the typical situations family and caregivers can expect on the long road to helping the sufferer to recover. Readers will learn about the effects on family life, in particular the common feelings of isolation and helplessness, and get strategies for coping and finding more information and assistance.Download Description
"Written by a mother whose daughter suffers from an eating disorder, Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa is a supportive, helpful guide for families of those with eating disorders. Framed by the personal story of Gráinne Smith and her daughter, the book describes the onset and symptoms of the two disorders, as well as the typical situations family and caregivers can expect on the long road to helping the sufferer to recover. Readers will learn about the effects on family life, in particular the common feelings of isolation and helplessness, and get strategies for coping and finding more information and assistance." ... Read more

Book Description
An autobiographical account of Anna Paterson's 14 year struggle with anorexia, beginning with her experiences of childhood abuse and ending with her recovery.

As featured in the BBC documentary "Quietly Dying".

From the author of "Running On Empty" & "Diet Of Despair". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Anorexic
In Anorexic, Anna Paterson quietly but unflinchingly tells the story of the years of hell she experienced, first as a child with a truly twisted and cruel grandmother who tormented her, and later as her anorexia tormented her until she slowly, courageously began to take the firt faltering steps toward recovery.
There are candid photos sprinkled throughout the book, and in all of them, Anna looks like such a sweet and gentle woman (a real English rose), it almost seems impossible that she felt compelled to punish her body by starving, because she thought she was worthless; or rather, something in her relentlessly told her that. The cover photo of Anna in profile is real. I don't cry at books, but this one made me want to. Anna's prose is modest and reserved, but simple and direct. In the book Anna also tells a second story, that of meeting the man who helped her realized her own worth as she helped him with his own issues. These two people were each other's miracle. Neither turned the other into a completely different person; that doesn't happen. But together, I think (and hope) they will be each other's strength for a lot of years to come.

Anorexic review
Anorexic was a very good book.It was not only a interesting look into the mind of an anorexic person it was a touching love story. I found it to be a great help and an inspiration.
Eileen Vesely

The "cause" of an ED can stem from many sources.
As years have passed, those concerned with EDs, and where they "come from" have come to realize that initial theories concerning "overly protective parents" is only one of the sets of circumstances which an ED can be formed in response to.Abuse is another way, and a particular form of abuse, and its toxic effects, forms the core of this story.

As another reviewer mentioned, parts of this book do get a bit "harrowing", not so much from the physical dangers Annas' ED brings about, but rather from the standpoint of....the twisted and clearly sadistic emotional abuse Anna (and her family)is subjected to by her Grandmother. Abuse purposely designed to erradicate any authentic sense-of-self that Anna might try to develop....and of a sort argueably even more creepy and emotionally corrosive than if she had been physically beaten.

The story concerens Anna's and the rest of the familys' attempts to confront and escape the influence of this evil woman, and to come to terms with the mental damage she has caused not only Anna, but every one of them.

Anna herself is a wonderful individual, and has gone on to individualy help and encourage many others who fight their own EDs.

This book never recieved distribution in the US, so shipping can be a bit delayed if you live in the States.

But if you suspect that emotional abuse may have played a role in the development of your own ED, you will probably want to take a look at this book.

A book that gave me real hope
"Anorexic" was a very positive book that reflected my experience of suffering from the illness very closely. It showed the damage caused by childhood abuse and the incredible lows of this life threatening disorder. But it also demonstrates the power of love and that recovery is difficult but possible.

A book I would recommend to casual readers interested in true life stories and sufferers alike. A story that really stays with you.

Extremely moving
Anna Paterson's life story shows the struggles that eating disorder sufferers go through. It is a book about how she dealt with her childhood abuse and how she developed severe life threatening anorexia.

However, despite being harrowing in places, it is hopeful and finally uplifting. As with all her books, Ms Paterson shows the reader that there is a way out and leaves them with real hope. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
You don't have to be thin to feel small.

Donnie's life is unraveling. His parents' marriage is falling apart, and his sister is slowly slipping away in the grip of her illness. To top it all off, he accidentally starts a rumor at school that hurts someone he cares about and leaves him an outcast.

So Donnie does the only thing he knows how to do: He tries to fix things, to make everything the way it was before. Before his parents stopped loving each other, before his sister disappeared, before he was alone. But some things are beyond

repair, and it will take all Donnie's strength to stop looking back and start moving forward again.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Unusual book about a brother dealing with his sister's anorexia
Donnie feels himself disappearing as his sister starves herself to death.Donnie and big sister, Karen, are both sick, literally, of their parents fighting.We find out mid-way through the book that Donnie is on some kind of medication, and Karen doesn't like to eat . . . ever.But this books is not really about anorexia.It's part of the story, but there is not the usual focus that an anorexia book would have with lots of details about how a person with an eating disorder would think, act, and feel, like there is in say The Best Little Girl in the World by Levenkron.

Instead, this is told through Donnie's eyes, and we see snippets of Donnie's life.The story is not told in a continuous way.There are often large gaps between chapters.Thisallows the reader to get a wide lens view of what happens to this family.This story is really about a little boy with no one that sees him.His parents fight with each other and pick on Karen about her eating.Donnie gets a scrap of attention when he is running a fever.But most of the time, he feels invisible.He turns it into a game where he tries to make sure no one speaks to him at school.Everyone complies, except for a new set of twins from his school who insist on saying hi to him at least once a day.

As Karen's body disappears and becomes just skin, Donnie feels himself disappearing into her disease.

SKIN
SKIN
Skin is a dark story about a fourteen year old boy named Donnie. Donnie's life is falling apart. His parents fight everyday, the girl he likes hates him, he doesn't have any friends, and his sister won't eat. All Donnie wants to do, is to be noticed, he wants his parents to pay attention to him for once, instead of his anorexic sister Karen. Karen always has the spotlight because, she has no fears whatsoever. Karen isn't afraid of cussing in front of her parents or at her parents, or running away or getting in trouble. Donnie wants to help his sister eat. He sneaks protein powder into her water when she's not looking. Karen still doesn't get any healthier or wider. Donnie is now the outcast at school. He goes through classes and the hallways, like an invisible man. Donnie doesn't notice anybody, and nobody notices him. Donnie just wants a good life. He wants his parents to stay together, and he wants Amanda to be his girlfriend, he wants friends that won't ditch him in the cafeteria. He wants his sister to be healthy. Amanda doesn't like Donnie, because he started a nasty rumor about her and himself. It made Amanda so embarrassed that she never wanted to talk to Donnie again. Even though she did talk to him soon enough. In the end, Karen isn't what you would exactly call healthy. But, Donnie did make new friends. He forgot all about his family issues and focused on what really mattered. His future. "Skin," can actually teach you a lesson on life. Be thankful for what you have and what wonderful things have happened to you. Don't think about the negative. Donnie thought about the negative, and every time, he felt worse and worse. Donnie's life was a mess. But once he started thinking of the positive, he could think clearly and fix his problems.

An unflinchingly honest look at family dynamics and formative friendships
Fourteen year-old Donnie is fairly invisible.He and his sister Karen escape during their parents' blow-out screaming matches.When Karen is with her best friend Amanda, Donnie becomes invisible to them.

Donnie had two best friends last year.Chris and Bean are "best friends with each other, and I'm best friends with the two of them at the same time.Not individually, though, because they already have each other."This year, however, Chris and Bean decided to move up in the pecking order, which necessitates having someone like Donnie below them to cement their status.

Skin is an unflinchingly honest look at family dynamics and formative friendships.Dad never had a father of his own, so parenting is shaky territory.Mom is desperately concerned with saving her marriage and getting her teen daughter to eat.Karen creates a web of lies about her health, always full of excuses about how she just ate at Amanda's or doesn't feel up to having food right now.Karen's weight is ready fodder for arguments between Mom and Dad.

All od these tensions render Donnie, our narrator, to the the background at home, at school, and in life.Skin is a story of survival.How much can one teen absorb before he stands up to shake the world up?

Skin
A great read for early teens.As an adult it made me think back to my teen years, both the pleasant and the unpleasant.

Unique
As a 14 year old, it's not uncommon to feel as though we're mismatched with our skin. To just want to burst out of this ill fitting exterior and float up to a place where you can be at peace, by yourself and untouchable. Escape from the world of bad and terrible things, like ear infections, dysfunctional, insane parents, few, fake friends and an anorexic sister. Donnie wants nothing more than to be able to escape. This story is told in first person, telling the story of finding happiness in the most random things, struggling through family issues and holding onto, and losing a very close sister to something as tragic as anorexia. However, this is not entirely an anorexia book. There area many more struggles of Donnie's. It does detail Karen's battle with this disease, and perhaps explains what provokes her case. It's unlike anything you've ever read and has the ability to incorporate every emotion you didn't know existed into the tears that will be poring out before you're finished. Guys and girls alike will never be the same after reading Skin. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description


A moving tale of love, starvation and Rock N Roll.

Jeff Bennington and Bianca Cordova are soul mates, separated since their teen years by dark secrets. The lesson that money cannot control love or illness becomes increasingly difficult to grasp as they try to bury their memories of each other. Dangerous journeys are put into motion and threaten more than just their lives. Jeff befriends the successful and quirky Rock N Roll band, False Eyelashes, whose record label is in financial trouble. Bianca chooses the life of a fashion model to resurrect her esteem but her choices prove contrary. Jeff fights to build his own dynasty within the music industry as the head of Benn Mac Records and Bianca fights to maintain her high profile career while struggling with Anorexia Nervosa. One turn leads to another and they are reunited in a merciless twist of fate. Dark secrets from the past unveil, and the band teams together with Jeff to save Bianca's life which is severely threatened by her illness. The fact that wealth and fame have little to do with healing wounds and building relationships descends and they cling to the trinity of hope. Love, compassion and friendship are all they need, but is it too late? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Emotionally Gripping!
Glass Windows is a work of fiction filled with entertainment but also overflowing with real facts about a very disturbing illness. It has excitement, humor and very well defined characters who reaffirm my belief in hope, love, friendship and most importantly, recovery. ... Read more

Book Description
My name is Anne Gurberg. I was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I graduated from McGill University with a bachelor of arts. My family recently opened up a movie cinema, and I work for them. Before that, I did live infomercials in large department stores. I struggled with anorexia since 15 years old and now I have overcome it at age 38. I wrote this book as an inspiration to the many people who have anorexia. The book tells of how I became anorexic, the consequences I suffered, the hospitals I went to, and how I overcame anorexia. Not only was I anorexic, but as a result of a pill my doctor gave me, I gained 63 ½ pounds, so I went from 99 pounds to 162 ½ pounds in just a few months. As a result of such a drastic change in my weight, I began to overcome anorexia. I went through two huge weight losses in my life, but I live comfortably now as a 115-pound person. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

dont waste your money or time
This book is so badly written I stopped after a chaper.tossed it in the trash where it belongs.wish I would have listened to all the bad reviews; they are all true.

Spare yourself the money, and pain
When I rate I reveserve two rating, I reserve Fives and I reserve Ones. I do this because there is always something better and there is always something worse. I have found the something worse. This book reads like a fifth grader's report. There is no plot, or even a coherent timeline. She gives you tips and tricks, going so far as to name chapters "How I Fooled My Parents," "How I Kept The Weight Off." She promotes self recovery; a process I doubt works, as it clearly did not work for her. In her recovered stage, she is nervous about eating and gaining weight. She must eat with people to prevent overeating. She is self righteous about herself in the book, and is obviously not honest to the reader. I have read books twice as long in half the time because I could not stomach more than one or two chapters at once. "Anti-Ana" or "Pro-Ana" I would not recommend this to you.

wow
Why didn't I listen to these other reviews? I am not trying to be rude but this was just sad. If I had to choose one word to describe this book it would be "redundant" She wrote the same sentences in every chapter it seemed. I can't even call this a book. It's more like a very poor high school essay or something. I recommend Running On Empty by Carrie Arnold. She's a very honest, intelligent, and talented writer.

Recovered?
Iam disgusted that someone let this women publish this book as a recovered anorexic!This women is still very sick and it shows in her writing.The whole book could have been summed up in two or three chapters.As a recovering anorexic myself I would be very scared to let someone trying to recover from anorexia anywhere near this book.I do feel bad for this women, it doesn't seem like she really ever got help for her disease.She's still living with her parents, still afraid of food, and now has found yet another problem to obsess about (her voice is not perfect).This book is just horrible!

Bad book
This book is a travesty.How someone can write something like this when she is extremely disordered still makes me ill.Talk about an "instruction booklet on how to stay "thin and pretty."I am appaled that this book even exists.It is very sad that the author has not gained ANY insight as she journeys.It isn't worth paying a dime for. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Saved my life
This book saved my life - it was not until I read my own thoughts on the pages of this book did I realize I was anorexic and that I, like Dr. Johnston, was dieing.

It takes great courage to put your own story on paper in the honest fashion that Dr. Johnston does.My suggestion - look for the similarities, not the differences.Recovery is possible.

CRAP
I found this book in a discount book shop and to my surprise actually fell for the first few pages as I scanned then.I suffer from various eating disorders and found myself relating to a lot she wrote .I bought the book and loved it for the first 100 pages.The author is a true believer in God (wich I am not) so at parts I found it difficult to relate to her.I am the type of person who picks up a book and must read until the end, no matter how bad I might think parts are.However, suddenly the book changed after page 100 and for the next 270 pages I nearly pulled out all my hair.Not because the book was thrilling, or great, or suspensful... but because it was just SO FREAKING BAD!!!!!DO NOT BOTHER BUYING IT! - especially if you are not a hard core believer in God. Regardless of that, this is not only the worst eating disordered book I've ever read but it's THE worst book I have ever read.

Physician, heal thyself
What happens when the doctor gets sick? Who "doctors" the doctor?
In this extremely personal book, Dr Joam Johnston takes you on a journey of the disease known as anorexia nervosa. The drive for thinness toke a large toll on Dr Johnston's health as well as helped destroy her marriage.

Dr Johnston guides you thru the slow path to recovery and also educates you along the way. She also feels that anorexia nervosa is an addiction and should be treated in that manner. She even suggests an "Anorexia Anonymous" as "the only avenue to recovery."

If you or a loved one suffer from this deadly disease, you must read this book. She offers much hope for recovery from this mostly misunderstood disease. ... Read more

Book Description
Simona Giordano presents the first full philosophical study of ethical issues in the treatment of anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Beginning with a comprehensive analysis of these conditions and an exploration of their complex causes, she then proceeds to address legal and ethical dilemmas such as a patient's refusal of life-saving treatment. Illustrated with many case-studies, Understanding Eating Disorders is an essential tool for anyone working with sufferers of these much misunderstood conditions, and for all those ethicists, lawyers, and medical practitioners engaged with the widely relevant issues they raise. ... Read more

Book Description
When anorexia nervosa strikes an individual and her family everyone is thrown into confusion by the mixture of emotions that emerge. One of the strongest is fear. The fear arises partially because so much is unknown. What has caused this to happen? What will happen now? What can we do about it? This book is an attempt to answer some of these questions.

Unusually for a book on anorexia nervosa this book includes sections for parents and other caregivers alongside a section for the sufferer herself. So often books have been written which only give one perspective. In her work with patients and families Janet Treasure has tried to ensure that family and professionals collaborate and co-operate in order to overcome the power of the illness. Many families have used and commented on various versions of this book, and have helped to form its content. Experiences and problems have been shared, and solutions generated.

Anorexia nervosa is a difficult illness to experience and write about because it spanssuch an extreme range of severity and it can also develop in childhood and adulthood. Nevertheless, there is much common ground throughout the range. Readers are therefore encouraged to use this book as a tool box rather than a new engine and to ask the questions "Is this part relevant for me?", "Can I use it?", "Shall I try it?" rather than trying to fit it all into place and expecting it to run smoothly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book saved my life (and my sanity)!!
I'm a recovering anorexic (thanks to this book)It's full of great information on the psychological, physiological, and social effects of this horrifying disease.It provides great information for friends and family on how to support those suffering from anorexia, and dedicates an entire section to "the sufferer".I wanted to recover so badly, but I didn't know where or how to begin, and I was too humiliated to see anyone professionally.I had forgotten how to eat: when to eat, what to eat, andI didn't know what eating again would do to my body.This book told me all that, and helped me to differentiate my self from the "anorexia minx"This book is sympathetic, supportive, informative, and a must for sufferers and their friends and families! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Cognitive Approach to Eating Disorders
This book is very heavily based on cognitive and rational-emotive therapy as a way to control emotions, and therefor destructive eating patterns. Dr. Sandbek talks about the differences between constructive negative emotions (like sadness) and negative destructive emotions (like depression), and their consequent constructive and destructive behaviors. You learn to recognize that destructive emotions come from distorted thoughts. He recommends taking all the ugly things one says to themselves and thinking of it as a seperate internal voice.Then you learn to argue with and defeat the "Voice." Dr. Sandbek also emphasizes time management and stress reduction techniques. On the negative side Dr. Sandbek doesn't appear to have an iota of a feminist perspective in him (at one point he recommends anorexics look Playboy so they can see how much thinner they are then women "men consider attractive"), which is startling considering how many women this disease affects.This isn't too much of a concern however, since clearly his intent is to help women overcome disempowering emotions and behaviors, with clinical proven cognitive tools. ... Read more