Learning to Be Me: My Twenty-Three-Year Battle with Bulimia

by Jocelyn Golden

Many women in the United States who suffer from eating disorders die from the diseases annually. Learning to Be Me: My Twenty-Three-Year Battle with Bulimia is one woman's courageous battle to not become a statistic. From violent self-abuse to feelings of despair as her cries for help went unanswered, author Jocelyn Golden's Learning To Be Me chronicles her battle and ultimate victory over one of the most silent, misunderstood, and deadly eating disorders in America. With candor and wit, Golden recounts the miserable realities of living with bulimia for more than two decades and paints a vivid self-portrait of a woman obsessed with being thin. An inspirational memoir about the search for strength, motivation, and support, Learning to Be Me illustrates the importance of self-love on the journey to healing.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for research and it broke my heart. what a horrible affliction bulimia is, destroying the body in multiple ways if left untreated.

[Sheelie Kittee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so powerful, heartwrenching. Unforgettable memoir.

[Liralen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me, I guess. It's not that long a book, but it felt much longer (not a good sign). There's too much telling rather than showing -- a person who wants to tell the reader everything that happened rather than a writer who knows which parts of the story to expand upon and which to bypass.

The author published a second book a few years after this one; I've not read that one but would take it as a good sign that she's managed to stick recovery. That said, parts of this book made me wonder whether there were still issues left unresolved -- she seems so deeply resentful of her family in places, for example, and while it could just be that the writing didn't do the job it needed to, I was left feeling as though she was heaping blame on her family and that it would take a great deal more work before she made peace with them.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely horrifying... as hard as it was for me to read, I really identified with Jocelyn's story. She went through a lot of the same things I did. She's very insightful. I would only recommend this book to bulimics or friends/family of bulimics. It's an intense read.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poignant, honest, disturbing