Suggested Reading Books Reviewed
Injecting Hope: Prevention & Recovery Eating Disorders in Type 1 Diabetes by Ann Goebel-Fabbri
After two decades working in the field Dr. Goebel-Fabbri interviewed 25 self proclaimed survivors of diabulimia, women who were in recovery from the co-morbidity of diabetes and eating disorders. The result is Injecting Hope: a book unlike any other! Dr. Goebel-Fabbri didn't just interview these women, she really dug at the heart of what made their recovery possible. In doing so, and with the assist of her own expertise and years of experience treating former diabetic patients with eating disorder Goebel Fabbri truly illuminates what makes recovery a possibility, not just for these 25 women but for all who suffer from the deadly combination of diabetes and eating disorders: hope. This book truly does inject hope into the darkness that is diabulimia/ED-DMT1, makes recovery not just look possible again, but shows what that afterlife, the road of recovery, a life full of happiness and vitality, a diabetic fully thriving in their being can truly be. There is not a book out there that I would recommend more to anyone, at any stage in their disorder or recovery than THIS BOOK!
After two decades working in the field Dr. Goebel-Fabbri interviewed 25 self proclaimed survivors of diabulimia, women who were in recovery from the co-morbidity of diabetes and eating disorders. The result is Injecting Hope: a book unlike any other! Dr. Goebel-Fabbri didn't just interview these women, she really dug at the heart of what made their recovery possible. In doing so, and with the assist of her own expertise and years of experience treating former diabetic patients with eating disorder Goebel Fabbri truly illuminates what makes recovery a possibility, not just for these 25 women but for all who suffer from the deadly combination of diabetes and eating disorders: hope. This book truly does inject hope into the darkness that is diabulimia/ED-DMT1, makes recovery not just look possible again, but shows what that afterlife, the road of recovery, a life full of happiness and vitality, a diabetic fully thriving in their being can truly be. There is not a book out there that I would recommend more to anyone, at any stage in their disorder or recovery than THIS BOOK!
Needles by Andie Dominick
Needles is an AMAZING book, one that EVERY diabulimic, and diabetic, should read. In this memoir Andie Dominick writes about her life with diabetes, first watching as her sister deals with it and then how her life changes when she develops diabetes as well. Then as she becomes a young adult, like many of us found out, she realized she could gain a sense of control by manipulating her insulin. The book follows her through denial of her disease to her eventual acceptance of it. A harrowing and at times tragic tale about what life with diabetes is really about; the struggles, the hardships, and unfortunately the complications that come when you’re unwilling to take care of yourself! A MUST read for anyone visiting this site, be it patient or parent! Get a copy and highlight the shit out of it, that’s what I did!
Needles is an AMAZING book, one that EVERY diabulimic, and diabetic, should read. In this memoir Andie Dominick writes about her life with diabetes, first watching as her sister deals with it and then how her life changes when she develops diabetes as well. Then as she becomes a young adult, like many of us found out, she realized she could gain a sense of control by manipulating her insulin. The book follows her through denial of her disease to her eventual acceptance of it. A harrowing and at times tragic tale about what life with diabetes is really about; the struggles, the hardships, and unfortunately the complications that come when you’re unwilling to take care of yourself! A MUST read for anyone visiting this site, be it patient or parent! Get a copy and highlight the shit out of it, that’s what I did!
Hungry by Crystal Renn
There are not enough good words to say about Hungry; a book that I could just not put down. A former 00 size model tells her remarkable story about life with anorexia and her journey to finding acceptance with her now size 12 body. Watching her struggle as she goes from a literally starving model to living the good life as her career takes off as she is now the most coveted plus size model in the world is inspirational. An AMAZING read as she intertwines her life story with scientific studies about the supposed obesity epidemic in America and the way women look at their bodies and themselves in general! It's both unique and exceptional and one that i could not recommend enough!! For sufferers of eating disorders, family members, or those just looking to understand more about the psychology behind the way we think when we choose to starve our bodies, Hungry is worth reading!!!
There are not enough good words to say about Hungry; a book that I could just not put down. A former 00 size model tells her remarkable story about life with anorexia and her journey to finding acceptance with her now size 12 body. Watching her struggle as she goes from a literally starving model to living the good life as her career takes off as she is now the most coveted plus size model in the world is inspirational. An AMAZING read as she intertwines her life story with scientific studies about the supposed obesity epidemic in America and the way women look at their bodies and themselves in general! It's both unique and exceptional and one that i could not recommend enough!! For sufferers of eating disorders, family members, or those just looking to understand more about the psychology behind the way we think when we choose to starve our bodies, Hungry is worth reading!!!
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Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig“Amazing book. Matt Haig explains what’s it’s like to live with life [debilitating] anxiety and depression. He tells his story and paints a beautiful picture as to why life is worth living. He talks about his coping mechanism and just how life inhibiting his anxiety was/is and how he manages it. I could relate a lot and found myself in tears at how he describes anxiety. He doesn’t try to paint a self-help book picture of ‘it gets better.’ He talks about how he didn’t believe it’d get better, and how he had to take [it] a day at a time until he found happiness. If you struggle with mental health, this read is a must.” — Hannah S.
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Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson“The author has several diagnosed mental illnesses, one of which is anxiety. Somehow she has managed to deal with her anxiety in a very humorous way and has passed her knowledge on to her readers. Most self-help books that we read are serious in nature. This book is like a breath of fresh air. By the time I was finished I felt like I was pretty ‘normal’ after all.” — Anne Z.
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Gaining: The Truth About Eating Disorders by Aimee Liu
Gaining: The Truth about Eating Disoders is one of the best books on eating disorders and recovery I have ever had the pleasure of reading! It’s different from the average book in that it is part interviews, part personal memoir, part research findings, and all relatable! Best of all it’s an interesting and relevant read whether you are in recovery or still suffering from your disorder. Gaining goes into excellent detail over the many factors that contribute to an eating disorder such as natural temperament, personality, and family dynamics. It also shows how these factors contribute to the different types of eating disorder personalities; and how it affects people after recovery. This book was very respectful of all sorts of eating disorder sufferers, while being very informing and artistically written. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning about eating disorders and all the factors that affect them. Most importantly, it talks about how eating disorders affect your life, now and in the future. -
Gaining: The Truth about Eating Disoders is one of the best books on eating disorders and recovery I have ever had the pleasure of reading! It’s different from the average book in that it is part interviews, part personal memoir, part research findings, and all relatable! Best of all it’s an interesting and relevant read whether you are in recovery or still suffering from your disorder. Gaining goes into excellent detail over the many factors that contribute to an eating disorder such as natural temperament, personality, and family dynamics. It also shows how these factors contribute to the different types of eating disorder personalities; and how it affects people after recovery. This book was very respectful of all sorts of eating disorder sufferers, while being very informing and artistically written. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning about eating disorders and all the factors that affect them. Most importantly, it talks about how eating disorders affect your life, now and in the future. -
Dear Ashley: A Father's Reflections and Letters to His Daughter by Don Blackwell
Dear Ashley offers great insight for those fighting an ED to see what it’s like for their loved ones to sit on the sidelines helplessly, not sure what to do. Don Blackwell’s closeness with his daughter highlights the importance of the parent-child relationship in healing the ED distorted mind. But warning, there is a very strong religious undertone to the book. While Blackwell does not insist that you share his beliefs, he does insist that it’s an integral part of the recovery process. (A belief not endorsed by Diabulimia Helpline.) In the preface Blackwell says the readers, “acceptance or non acceptance of [his faith] will not detract from the books message.” If this is the case I found his talk of faith, prayer, and God to be a little heavy handed. That being said he’s right, it doesn’t detract from the amazing message and insight he brings to the world of being a parent to an ED claimed child, the eating disorder world, and life as a whole. Through out the whole book I found myself nodding along and highlighting passage after passage and actually saying, “yes!” out loud. Here is a dad who finally “gets it!” (A true rarity in the ED world.) Being a parent is not a must to read, understand, and truly gain something from this book. The book is full of hope, something we could all use a little more of. Definitely, definitely pick this book up if you have a chance!
Dear Ashley offers great insight for those fighting an ED to see what it’s like for their loved ones to sit on the sidelines helplessly, not sure what to do. Don Blackwell’s closeness with his daughter highlights the importance of the parent-child relationship in healing the ED distorted mind. But warning, there is a very strong religious undertone to the book. While Blackwell does not insist that you share his beliefs, he does insist that it’s an integral part of the recovery process. (A belief not endorsed by Diabulimia Helpline.) In the preface Blackwell says the readers, “acceptance or non acceptance of [his faith] will not detract from the books message.” If this is the case I found his talk of faith, prayer, and God to be a little heavy handed. That being said he’s right, it doesn’t detract from the amazing message and insight he brings to the world of being a parent to an ED claimed child, the eating disorder world, and life as a whole. Through out the whole book I found myself nodding along and highlighting passage after passage and actually saying, “yes!” out loud. Here is a dad who finally “gets it!” (A true rarity in the ED world.) Being a parent is not a must to read, understand, and truly gain something from this book. The book is full of hope, something we could all use a little more of. Definitely, definitely pick this book up if you have a chance!
Reading Lists
Purge: Rehab Diaries by Nicole Johns
Purge is a real look at what life inside a rehab center is really like. Reading this book i couldn't help but to mark up the pages with underlines and sticky notes to go back to later. Her words could have been straight out of my own journal. Saying the gritty truth that not everyone is willing to put out there. A really remarkable read for anyone who is struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder! It's inspirational without being corny or cheesy, real without being shocking for the sake of shocking. A unique perspective and a book worth picking up for patients and family members alike! Showing the side of this illness we don't always want to talk about but every family needs to hear!
Purge is a real look at what life inside a rehab center is really like. Reading this book i couldn't help but to mark up the pages with underlines and sticky notes to go back to later. Her words could have been straight out of my own journal. Saying the gritty truth that not everyone is willing to put out there. A really remarkable read for anyone who is struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder! It's inspirational without being corny or cheesy, real without being shocking for the sake of shocking. A unique perspective and a book worth picking up for patients and family members alike! Showing the side of this illness we don't always want to talk about but every family needs to hear!
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
This book has nothing to do with diabetes, even less so with eating disorders. Yet, I’m putting here. I’m recommending it to every one of you. To patients and parents alike. This disease can seem horrible and random. The question of “why me” is uttered often by all affected by diabetes, ED’s; and especially those who battle both. And regardless of where your recovery journey takes you, it is part of who you are. All of it, the diabetes, the eating disorder, the hospital visits, the DKA bouts, and for some; even the unfortunate consequences that we will live with forever. But it’s all part of your story; the amazing patchwork of evenets that make you who you are; a perfect imperfection.
This book has nothing to do with diabetes, even less so with eating disorders. Yet, I’m putting here. I’m recommending it to every one of you. To patients and parents alike. This disease can seem horrible and random. The question of “why me” is uttered often by all affected by diabetes, ED’s; and especially those who battle both. And regardless of where your recovery journey takes you, it is part of who you are. All of it, the diabetes, the eating disorder, the hospital visits, the DKA bouts, and for some; even the unfortunate consequences that we will live with forever. But it’s all part of your story; the amazing patchwork of evenets that make you who you are; a perfect imperfection.
Insatiable by Eve Eliot
The fictional story of four teens, all of whom suffer from disordered eating; two anorexics, a bulimic, and a compulsive over eater. The book follows their stories as they go through the trials and pitfalls of what having an eating disorder can due to your life as a teenager, physically, emotionally, and socially. However the book would have been better suited choosing one character and developing her story to a truly in depth level, what you end up with instead is a surface deep look, at best, at their eating disorder behavior. It's a good read as far as a piece of fiction goes and perhaps one i would give to the little brother or sister of someone suffering from an eating disorder. You don't get caught up in medical jargon and the stories are interesting enough to keep you compelled to want to keep reading. Warning: The book talks in depth about food and binges so it could be triggering for some! All in all it's a good book and a lighter read so it might be worth picking up but i was expecting a LOT more since the author is a trained psychotherapist.
The fictional story of four teens, all of whom suffer from disordered eating; two anorexics, a bulimic, and a compulsive over eater. The book follows their stories as they go through the trials and pitfalls of what having an eating disorder can due to your life as a teenager, physically, emotionally, and socially. However the book would have been better suited choosing one character and developing her story to a truly in depth level, what you end up with instead is a surface deep look, at best, at their eating disorder behavior. It's a good read as far as a piece of fiction goes and perhaps one i would give to the little brother or sister of someone suffering from an eating disorder. You don't get caught up in medical jargon and the stories are interesting enough to keep you compelled to want to keep reading. Warning: The book talks in depth about food and binges so it could be triggering for some! All in all it's a good book and a lighter read so it might be worth picking up but i was expecting a LOT more since the author is a trained psychotherapist.
Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
Be VERY CAREFUL before picking up this book. While the epilogue, the looking back on her eating disordered life is beautiful and touching. The heart of the book is traveling alongside her as she battles her eating disorder, and some parts of the book are VERY intense and could be viewed as anorexic how-to’s. As she talks about her weight as it goes down and her shrinking body I found myself being triggered, and i didn’t want to eat. While it’s a beautiful book, it’s written from a mind that was trapped inside her eating disorder (and may still be in my opinion!) and is going to be VERY TRIGGERING for anyone still in the midsts of their eating disorder! A book to read perhaps YEARS after finding recovery, be careful! However, it is a book most parents should pick up! It is a poignant and scarily accurate and detailed account of what goes on within the eating disordered mind. Be warned, not for the faint of heart, but it could not be more educational or spot on to what most of us think at one point or another!
Be VERY CAREFUL before picking up this book. While the epilogue, the looking back on her eating disordered life is beautiful and touching. The heart of the book is traveling alongside her as she battles her eating disorder, and some parts of the book are VERY intense and could be viewed as anorexic how-to’s. As she talks about her weight as it goes down and her shrinking body I found myself being triggered, and i didn’t want to eat. While it’s a beautiful book, it’s written from a mind that was trapped inside her eating disorder (and may still be in my opinion!) and is going to be VERY TRIGGERING for anyone still in the midsts of their eating disorder! A book to read perhaps YEARS after finding recovery, be careful! However, it is a book most parents should pick up! It is a poignant and scarily accurate and detailed account of what goes on within the eating disordered mind. Be warned, not for the faint of heart, but it could not be more educational or spot on to what most of us think at one point or another!
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