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Midlife Eating Disorders: Your Journey to Recovery
In most people's minds, "eating disorder" (ED) conjures images of a thin, white, upper-middle-class teenage girl. The ED landscape has changed. Countless men and women in midlife and beyond, from all ethnic backgrounds, also struggle with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, purging disorder, and binge eating disorder. Some people have suffered since youth; others relapsed in midlife, often after a stressor such as infidelity, divorce, death of a loved one, menopause, or unemployment. Still others experience eating disorder symptoms for the first time in midlife.
Primary care physicians, ob-gyns, and other practitioners may overlook these disorders in adults or, even worse, demean them for not having outgrown these adolescent problems. Treatments for adults must acknowledge and address the unique challenges faced by those middle-aged or older. Midlife Eating Disorders-a landmark book-guides adults in understanding "Why me?" and "Why now?" It shows a connection between the rise in midlife ED and certain industries that foster discontent with the natural aging process. It also gives readers renewed hope by explaining how to overcome symptoms and access resources and support. Renowned eating disorder specialist Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., helps partners and family members develop compassion for those who suffer with ED-and helps health professionals appreciate the nuances associated with detecting and treating midlife eating disorders.
Primary care physicians, ob-gyns, and other practitioners may overlook these disorders in adults or, even worse, demean them for not having outgrown these adolescent problems. Treatments for adults must acknowledge and address the unique challenges faced by those middle-aged or older. Midlife Eating Disorders-a landmark book-guides adults in understanding "Why me?" and "Why now?" It shows a connection between the rise in midlife ED and certain industries that foster discontent with the natural aging process. It also gives readers renewed hope by explaining how to overcome symptoms and access resources and support. Renowned eating disorder specialist Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., helps partners and family members develop compassion for those who suffer with ED-and helps health professionals appreciate the nuances associated with detecting and treating midlife eating disorders.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2013
14 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia M. Bulik
13 books28 followersCynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., FAED, is the Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she is also Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program. A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Bulik has been conducting research and treating individuals with eating disorders for over two decades. She received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She completed internships and post-doctoral fellowships at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She developed outpatient, day patient, and inpatient services for eating disorders both in New Zealand and in the United States. Her research has included treatment, laboratory, epidemiological, twin and molecular genetic studies of eating disorders and body weight regulation. She also develops innovative means of integrating technology into treatment for eating disorders and obesity. She has active research collaborations throughout the United States and in twenty countries around the world. Dr. Bulik has written over 400 scientific papers and chapters on eating disorders and is author of Eating Disorders: Detection and Treatment (Dunmore), Runaway Eating (Rodale), Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop (Walker), and Abnormal Psychology(Prentice Hall). She is a recipient of the Eating Disorders Coalition Research Award, the Academy for Eating Disorders Leadership Award for Research, the Price Family National Eating Disorders Association Research Award, Carolina Women’s Center Women’s Advocacy Award, the Women’s Leadership Council Faculty-to-Faculty Mentorship Award, the František Faltus Award, and the Academy for Eating Disorders Meehan-Hartley Advocacy Award. She is a past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders, past Vice-President of the Eating Disorders Coalition, and past Associate Editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Dr. Bulik holds the first endowed professorship in eating disorders in the United States. Her academic life is balanced by being happily married with three children and a gold medalist ice dancer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 7, 2013
**A light and a lifeline for midlife eating disorders**
Based on how much I loved Cynthia’s previous books of Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop and The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are it wasn’t too much of a surprise that I ate up her most recent treat of a book! As was the case with her other books, Cynthia delivers a wealth of information in such a well-organized and engaging way: it feels like she’s sitting right there talking to you!
With its focus on midlife eating disorders, this book stands out among the others on the shelf that tend to be focused more on teenagers and young adults. (This is not your teenage daughter’s eating disorder recovery book!) After painting the unique picture of the face of the eating disorders of anorexia, bulimia, purging disorder, and binge eating disorder (BED) in midlife, Cynthia looks at the challenges specific to this age group. She even devotes much-needed attention to the presentation and treatment of eating disorders in men. The final section of the book provides valuable guidance for staying on the path of midlife eating disorder recovery.
The delicious servings of information, wisdom, and encouragement throughout this book certainly meet the nutritional requirements for learning about the causes, context, and treatment of midlife eating disorders. Each chapter is a satisfying meal in and of itself. At the end of the book, Cynthia serves up a delicious dessert in the form of the essential ingredients for recovery that she has gleamed during her thirty years of treating eating disorders…They’re too good not to share some bites here, but you’ll have to get your hands on the book to savor them in their entirety (pp. 286-289):
• Be patient and compassionate with yourself.
Treatment will not succeed if you are impatient. Eating disorders develop over time, and they go away over time. There is no perfect recovery.
• Eat.
Whether you have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, purging disorder, BED, or some variation on the theme, eating is your friend and critical to recovery...Not eating gets people with every conceivable eating disorder in trouble.
• Expect bumps along the road.
Recovery is not linear. If you expect it to be linear, you will be disappointed… Obstacles surely get thrown your way, but you get better at learning how to deal with them—because you learn from every obstacle and can respond in a more effective way the next time you encounter it.
• Find something about yourself you can love.
Patients who have done well have been able to lift their self-loathing sheath, if only a little, to recognize and come to love some aspect about themselves that they can view as positive. This is often the first foothold into developing the self-permission for recovery.
• Be persistent.
Don’t give up. If a round of treatment fails, do not become defeatist. Try something else, or try another round of the same thing. Eventually, after enough turning and tapping, the lid is going to come off the jar, and you’ll be free to progress in recovery.
• Practice radical honesty.
Radical honesty can feel like jumping off the high dive blindfolded, but giving up all of the eating disorder secrets is an essential piece of recovery.
• Rely on your support team.
Recovery is difficult in a vacuum. Define your support team, whether it includes your therapist, physician, partner, parents, friends, or siblings…Eating disorders prey on loneliness.
• Pat yourself on the back, and accept it when others pat you on the back.
Don’t let treatment success fly by without acknowledgement. Recovery is hard work, and if you don’t allow yourself to feel a sense of accomplishment when you make progress, it will not be a reinforcing experience.
• Don’t sit back and expect recovery to come knocking.
No one ever said that recovery was easy. Recovery is not for the meek. You need to go out and seek recovery and put muscle into achieving it.
• Don’t hold on to a nugget.
This is related to practicing radical honesty, but it refers to holding on to one last vestige of the eating disorder—not wanting to add that last “feared food” to your diet, allowing yourself one purge per week, skipping breakfast on Sunday…You have to let it all go and find healthier alternatives that allow you achieve the same endpoint—be it security, control, calm or whatever that nugget provides you with—in order to close the door on the eating disorder and move on to the next phase of your life.
Cynthia’s groundbreaking book provides both a light and a lifeline for helping individuals and their loved ones navigate the path of midlife eating disorders.
Based on how much I loved Cynthia’s previous books of Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop and The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are it wasn’t too much of a surprise that I ate up her most recent treat of a book! As was the case with her other books, Cynthia delivers a wealth of information in such a well-organized and engaging way: it feels like she’s sitting right there talking to you!
With its focus on midlife eating disorders, this book stands out among the others on the shelf that tend to be focused more on teenagers and young adults. (This is not your teenage daughter’s eating disorder recovery book!) After painting the unique picture of the face of the eating disorders of anorexia, bulimia, purging disorder, and binge eating disorder (BED) in midlife, Cynthia looks at the challenges specific to this age group. She even devotes much-needed attention to the presentation and treatment of eating disorders in men. The final section of the book provides valuable guidance for staying on the path of midlife eating disorder recovery.
The delicious servings of information, wisdom, and encouragement throughout this book certainly meet the nutritional requirements for learning about the causes, context, and treatment of midlife eating disorders. Each chapter is a satisfying meal in and of itself. At the end of the book, Cynthia serves up a delicious dessert in the form of the essential ingredients for recovery that she has gleamed during her thirty years of treating eating disorders…They’re too good not to share some bites here, but you’ll have to get your hands on the book to savor them in their entirety (pp. 286-289):
• Be patient and compassionate with yourself.
Treatment will not succeed if you are impatient. Eating disorders develop over time, and they go away over time. There is no perfect recovery.
• Eat.
Whether you have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, purging disorder, BED, or some variation on the theme, eating is your friend and critical to recovery...Not eating gets people with every conceivable eating disorder in trouble.
• Expect bumps along the road.
Recovery is not linear. If you expect it to be linear, you will be disappointed… Obstacles surely get thrown your way, but you get better at learning how to deal with them—because you learn from every obstacle and can respond in a more effective way the next time you encounter it.
• Find something about yourself you can love.
Patients who have done well have been able to lift their self-loathing sheath, if only a little, to recognize and come to love some aspect about themselves that they can view as positive. This is often the first foothold into developing the self-permission for recovery.
• Be persistent.
Don’t give up. If a round of treatment fails, do not become defeatist. Try something else, or try another round of the same thing. Eventually, after enough turning and tapping, the lid is going to come off the jar, and you’ll be free to progress in recovery.
• Practice radical honesty.
Radical honesty can feel like jumping off the high dive blindfolded, but giving up all of the eating disorder secrets is an essential piece of recovery.
• Rely on your support team.
Recovery is difficult in a vacuum. Define your support team, whether it includes your therapist, physician, partner, parents, friends, or siblings…Eating disorders prey on loneliness.
• Pat yourself on the back, and accept it when others pat you on the back.
Don’t let treatment success fly by without acknowledgement. Recovery is hard work, and if you don’t allow yourself to feel a sense of accomplishment when you make progress, it will not be a reinforcing experience.
• Don’t sit back and expect recovery to come knocking.
No one ever said that recovery was easy. Recovery is not for the meek. You need to go out and seek recovery and put muscle into achieving it.
• Don’t hold on to a nugget.
This is related to practicing radical honesty, but it refers to holding on to one last vestige of the eating disorder—not wanting to add that last “feared food” to your diet, allowing yourself one purge per week, skipping breakfast on Sunday…You have to let it all go and find healthier alternatives that allow you achieve the same endpoint—be it security, control, calm or whatever that nugget provides you with—in order to close the door on the eating disorder and move on to the next phase of your life.
Cynthia’s groundbreaking book provides both a light and a lifeline for helping individuals and their loved ones navigate the path of midlife eating disorders.
May 24, 2015
When you say "eating disorder," the primary images most people conjure up are of teenage girls, either anorexic or bulimic. While eating disorders have been, and remain, a special area of concern for young women, they can also strike at midlife for a variety of reasons, including perimenopause, infidelity, and divorce. Bulik's excellent resource is a guide to how anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and other disordered patterns manifest in both adult men and women, the research we have (and don't have), treatment methods, and advice for caregivers.
This book is THOROUGH. Special problems diagnosing adults in general, and both people of color and LGBTQ populations, are covered here. Whole chapters are devoted to the special problems of pregnancy and parenting with an eating disorder. Another chapter is specifically about men, whose problems go untreated much longer because eating disorders are considered "women's problems only." There's also a great chapter on the complicated roles genes and environment play in these situations, and how the presence or absence of an environmental factor may or may not trigger a genetic predisposition to disordered eating.
The extensive description of treatment options (including how to decide when/whether palliative care is appropriate) will be most helpful to those with eating disorders and their loved ones, as it will help them make informed decisions about their options, and decide which treatments resonate most strongly with them. Bulik gives advice on choosing a therapist, goes over what insurance usually does and does not cover, and stresses that recovery is not a linear journey, but more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly stuff. A list of web resources and extensive chapter footnotes round out what is a very readable book. Clinicians who work with eating disorders will want this, as will adults who are suffering, either openly or secretly, at midlife (as ever, share this with your doctor for his/her professional opinion).
This is pretty much the best consumer health book I've ever read. It's intelligent and yet still readable, it emphasizes the positive without being chirpy, and it is very honest about what we do, and do not, know about diagnosis and treatment in this area. I was particularly struck by the sections on self-care, both for patients and partners, and the effects an eating disorder can have on a family ecosystem. Best random "spotted it on the book cart" reading selection I've ever made.
This book is THOROUGH. Special problems diagnosing adults in general, and both people of color and LGBTQ populations, are covered here. Whole chapters are devoted to the special problems of pregnancy and parenting with an eating disorder. Another chapter is specifically about men, whose problems go untreated much longer because eating disorders are considered "women's problems only." There's also a great chapter on the complicated roles genes and environment play in these situations, and how the presence or absence of an environmental factor may or may not trigger a genetic predisposition to disordered eating.
The extensive description of treatment options (including how to decide when/whether palliative care is appropriate) will be most helpful to those with eating disorders and their loved ones, as it will help them make informed decisions about their options, and decide which treatments resonate most strongly with them. Bulik gives advice on choosing a therapist, goes over what insurance usually does and does not cover, and stresses that recovery is not a linear journey, but more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly stuff. A list of web resources and extensive chapter footnotes round out what is a very readable book. Clinicians who work with eating disorders will want this, as will adults who are suffering, either openly or secretly, at midlife (as ever, share this with your doctor for his/her professional opinion).
This is pretty much the best consumer health book I've ever read. It's intelligent and yet still readable, it emphasizes the positive without being chirpy, and it is very honest about what we do, and do not, know about diagnosis and treatment in this area. I was particularly struck by the sections on self-care, both for patients and partners, and the effects an eating disorder can have on a family ecosystem. Best random "spotted it on the book cart" reading selection I've ever made.
January 5, 2022
I have to admit I skimmed this book because I got frustrated. I’m hoping I’m wrong and I missed the section I needed, but all I saw was another book taking about people who suffer with anorexia doing so because they want to be skinny like the girls on tv. I was diagnosed with an eating disorder. Not anorexia because I was able to stay above that weight line. Never any of it having to do with my weight or desire to be thin because of beauty. Where is the book that talks about anorexics and atypical anorexics that is not a diet gone wrong? Maybe it’s in there but I didn’t see it. Some of us aren’t chasing vanity we are trying to shut down the demon inside telling us we don’t deserve to eat and if we do we deserve to suffer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2014
this is probably a 3.5.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews