New Research on Eating Disorders

I just reviewed Aimee Liu's new book, Gaining:  The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.  I've talked in the past here about my own eating disorder, which existed most obviously from 17 to 21 but was an important part of my life up until about age 26, even though I appeared "normal" for years by then.  I still fight some aspects of my personality that made me susceptible to anorexia - the perfectionism, the anxiety, the rigidity.  I sometimes wish my beloved and my friends and family could spend one day inside my head, hearing the standards, the schedules, the volume of stuff I feel pressured by some unknown force to achieve.

Over the years my friends have said no one is busier.  I felt lame when I went from a full-time job, teaching a college class and writing six to eight magazine articles a year plus full-time parenting to just the full-time job and blog-related work in addition to the parenting.

My sister can't stand it that I can't sit still to watch a movie without doing something else or getting up 10,000 times.  My mother said I used to wake up in the middle of the night to clean my room.  Though I've finally learned to stop taking out my anxiety by counting calories and restricting which types of foods I'll allow myself to eat, when I'm anxious now I find myself tallying our credit card balance and our monthly incomes.  I need to add up something.  I restrict budgets now instead of calories, but when I'm anxious I HAVE to restrict something to feel better.

Now I finally understand why. Chromosome 1.  If you know anyone who has displayed signs of anorexia or bulimia, even if they were never diagnosed (most aren't), read this book. It will help you stop wondering why they can't just behave like a normal person.