This month, my book was reviewed on EDReferral.com. While they usually only review and promote books on eating disorders, they chose mine because of the topics surrounding co-occurring illnesses that I cover.
This came from their newsletter:
Books, Book Reviews and Other Educational Resources:
BOOK REVIEW:
The Girl Inside: Silent No More By Lindsay Ensor: Shame and stigma are two difficult hurdles against seeking help. This is especially true if you have an eating disorder or mental illness. Lindsay Ensor had both. She also had alcohol abuse, a dependence on prescribed pain killers, starvation, “vigorous” laxative abuse, bulimia, anxiety, major depression, and multiple suicide attempts. Lindsay came from a loving Christian family and at the age of 8, her father dies suddenly, and she finds him lying in front of their house. Her guilt haunts her as he had asked for her help with a garden project but she ran off to play with her friends instead. Five months later her mother remarries. She describes her aching soul, “I tucked my pain away deep inside, hoping that one day it would just go away. That day never came.” Instead, Lindsay’s pain goes into hiding, and she never shares the depth of her suffering and despair with the people who love her, her husband included. She spends over 150 days in residential treatment and in-patient facilities, and was prescribed 15 different medications and electric convulsive therapy to no avail; her depression was termed “treatment-resistant.” When she finally reveals that she has had constant, unremitting suicidal thoughts, her psychiatrist diagnoses that she is struggling with bipolar II disorder, and the appropriate medication is finally prescribed. Lindsay’s story is a harrowing one. But through the intervention of her therapist and her ongoing trusting connection to him plus the correct medication, her life turns around and she begins to recover and rediscover her zest for life. The deep and valuable lessons of Lindsay’s book are: don’t ever give up no matter how much pain your eating disorder or depression is causing, you are not alone, and leave no stone unturned to get help. Lindsay’s own transformation from hopeless to hopeful is a powerful example. Lindsay advocates for mental illness awareness on her website www.healingandsurviving.com.
Find this and other eating disorder-related books here: EDReferral.com.
Book review submitted by Mary Anne Cohen, Director of The New York Center for Eating Disorders