Inner Hunger: A Young Woman's Struggle Through Anorexia and Bulimia

by Marianne Apostolides

Adolescence is a time full of pitfalls for teenage girls. Many escape relatively unscathed; some -- unable to cope successfully with the pressures exerted by family, school, and the media -- develop eating disorders. Marianne Apostolides was one of those girls. She became anorexic at the age of fourteen and struggled for the next ten years with anorexia, binge eating, and bulimia. In this courageous work, Apostolides recreates the years in which she felt she could control her life only by controlling her diet. Insecure, unable to communicate with her parents, and driven to achieve at school, she initially found relief in the structure of calorie-counting and schedules. When the constant dieting became too much for her body to handle, she began to binge, and then to binge and purge. Her world defined by food, Apostolides would battle throughout high school, college, and adulthood to confront the deeper issues that compelled her to hurt herself again and again. This is a book about a young woman who did not know how to cope with her feelings, and who, through therapy, was able to find the road to recovery at last. Absorbing and honest, hers is an important story of anguish, frustration, and, ultimately, triumph

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Psychology

171 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Marianne Apostolides vit à Toronto. Dans ses livres, elle franchit sans cesse la limite entre la réalité et la fiction, le raconté et le vécu.

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marianne tells her story from past to present, from her point of view with a food obsessed inner dialogue along the way. The book spares very few intimate details with her unconventional soul searching through her life which includes brief drug use, several therapists, massage therapy and other methods to try to be at peace with her disorder and body. It concludes with her learning to have compassion for herself, "sit" with her emotions, and listening to her body. The end of the book offers some resources and advice to parents, teachers etc of those with eating disorders with a HUGE emphasis on therapy. The story was really fascinating and I appreciated her raw and brutal honesty.

[Janet Holt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.25
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[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great synopsis of one woman's experience with an eating disorder. It helped me better understand my own complicated relationship with food without being triggering. Explores the emotional causes of food restriction and helps the reader to understand how to cope with emotions. Also explores the family dynamics that can lead up to eating disorders and a section on how to raise girls to be emotionally savvy in an attempt to prevent eating disorders.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of this book is very real, but its very triggering and depressing and I just didn't like it.