Eating Disorders & Body Image Books - NJCU :: Counseling Center

First published more than twenty years ago, with almost 150,000 copies sold, The Golden Cage is still the classic book on anorexia nervosa, for patients, parents, mental health trainees, and senior therapists alike. Writing in direct, jargon-free style, often quoting her patients' descriptions of their own experience of illness and recovery, Bruch describes the relentless pursuit of thinness and the search for superiority in self-denial that characterizes anorexia nervosa. She emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and offers guidance on danger signs. Little-known when this groundbreaking book was first published, eating disorders have become all too familiar. Sympathetic and astute, The Golden Cage now speaks to a new generation.

Checking and rechecking one's appearance in the mirror may be more than mere vanity — it could be a sign of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This condition can lead to unnecessary plastic surgery, serious eating disorders, steroid abuse, even suicide. The BDD Workbook offers a proven intervention plan and personal stories, exercises, charts, and worksheets to help readers recognize distorted self-perception and develop a balanced self-image.

Written by an anorexia nervosa survivor and director of a successful eating disorder treatment facility, The Eating Disorder Sourcebook helps you sort through the many treatment options available to help you in your recovery. This new edition covers new medications and treatment programs, underlying causes and risk factors, and strategies for detecting and preventing eating disorders.

Hirschmann, Jane & Munter, Carol (1995). When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies: Freeing Yourself from Food and Weight Obsession.

In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don't work. In fact, diets turn us into compulsive eaters who are obsessed with food and weight. Munter and Hirschmann call this syndrome "Bad Body Fever" and demonstrate how "bad body thoughts" are clues to our emotional lives. They explore the difficulties women encounter replacing dieting with demand feeding. And finally, they teach us how to think about our problems rather than eat about them—so that food can resume its proper place in our lives.

Hirschmann, Jane & Zaphiropoulos, Lela (1993). Preventing Childhood Eating Problems: A Practical, Positive Approach to Raising Children Free of Food and Weight Conflicts.

As seen on the Oprah Winfrey show! This book offers a common-sense, relaxed approach to healthy eating for children of all ages. The authors present evidence that children will naturally self-regulate their eating if rigid rules are not imposed upon them. They also address parents' most common concerns such as when, what, and how much kids should be eating, how to handle peer pressure, the sugar controversy, body-image problems, special situations, and eating disorders. This book will help both parents and children make peace with food.

This companion to Marcia Hutchinson's bestselling Transforming Body Image consists of 200 pleasurable exercises from which you can choose at random, letting the universe guide your choice. Taking a bath can be transformed into a sumptuous feast for the senses. Your shower can become a waterfall, brushing your teeth a real event, not an unconscious repetition. This new awareness will help you become focused and newly aware of your body as it is, and lead you to love the body you have.

Johnston, Anita (1996). Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food through Myth, Metaphor and Storytelling.

Weaving a rich tapestry of multicultural myths, ancient legends, and simple folktales, Anita Johnston teaches women how to free themselves from disordered eating by discovering the metaphors that are hidden in their own life stories. "Storytellers speak in the language of myth and metaphor," Johnston explains. "They tell us a truth that is not literal, but symbolic. If we hear the stories with only the outer ear, they can seem absurd and untrue, but when listened to with the inner ear, they convey a truth that can be understood and absorbed on a deeply personal level. In this way, stories help us connect with our inner world, to the natural rhythms and cycles of the earth, and to the power of our intuitive wisdom."

It's hard to take good care of something you don't love. So it's no wonder that women, burdened by self-doubt and societal pressure, continue to neglect their own health and happiness in the pursuit of a mythical "perfect body". This book teaches women to take a long, forgiving look at themselves and assess their real physical attributes and needs rather than the ones society says they should have.

Written by Dr. Christopher Fairburn, an international expert on eating disorders, this unique book provides clinicians, sufferers, and interested others with an authoritative and accessible account on binge eating problems. Overcoming Binge Eating provides all the information needed to understand the problem and bring it under control. Dispelling many of the myths associated with binge eating, Part One provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of current knowledge about binge eating problems.

Hall, Lindsey & Cohn, Leigh (1980). Eat Without Fear: A True Story About the Gorge-Purge Syndrome.

An honest account of how Lindsey Hall cured herself after 9 years of bulimarexia, the gorge/purge syndrome. This obsession caused her to secretly eat tremendous quantities of food and then throw up several times a day.

Hall, Lindsey & Cohn, Leigh (Ed.) (1984). Beating Bulimia: What Has Worked for Me.

This book contains survey results and comments from two-hundred and seventeen bulimics, who answered questions about their eating disorders and recoveries.

This book is the personal story of Stacey Handler, granddaughter of the woman who created the Barbie doll. Through autobiographical prose, Stacy openly discloses her battle with body image. She deftly chronicles both her struggles and triumphs, in the hope of aiding women similarly in pain. The Body Burden covers many aspects of food and body-image issues.

Hesse-Biber, Sharlene (1996). Am I Thin Enough Yet? - The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity

Whether they are rich or poor, tall or short, liberal or conservative, most young American women have one thing in common--they want to be thin. And they are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get that way, even to the point of starving themselves. Why are America's women so preoccupied with weight? What has caused record numbers of young women--even before they reach their teenage years--to suffer from anorexia and bulimia? In Am I Thin Enough Yet?, Sharlene Hesse-Biber answers these questions and more, as she goes beyond traditional psychological explanations of eating disorders to level a powerful indictment against the social, political, and economic pressures women face in a weight-obsessed society.

Orbach, Susie (1982). Fat Is a Feminist Issue II: A Program to Conquer Compulsive Eating.

In response to thousands of requests, Susie Orbach has created a step-by-step guide that shows you how to break the binge-purge cycle and stop dieting forever. It offers practical exercises designed to help you listen to your body’s needs, recognize when you’ve had enough, and leave food on your plate.

Something has happened to food in America: It is no longer simply food - filling, good-tasting, life-sustaining. Rather, it is "fat-free" or "high in fiber" or "low in cholesterol" - either an enemy that will steal life away or a savior that will prolong it indefinitely. In this provocative book, Michelle Stacey chronicles the psychological and cultural forces behind this American obsession, forces that have transformed oat bran and broccoli into magical totems, and steak, butter, and eggs into killers. We have refashioned food into preventive medicine, a moral test, sometimes literally a mortal enemy - and in the process we have lost sight of one of its most basic functions: the giving of pleasure.

Waterhouse, Debra (1997). Like Mother, Like Daughter: Breaking Free from the Diet Trap.

The pressure for thinness has created a shift toward body unhappiness, food fears, restrictive dieting, & weight struggles, forming a trap of unhealthy food & body relationships that has caught millions of women & girls. An unhealthy relationship with food often begins when a mothers spoken & unspoken messages initiate her daughters fight against her own body. Waterhouse traces the spread of disordered eating & body dissatisfaction in each generation to more women & to younger girls. She provides the skills to break free from this unhealthy cycle, pass on healthier eating patterns, & finally overcome our weight obsessions.