Over the last few years, I’ve done a lot of reading about eating disorders and related issues like perfectionism, self-esteem, and anxiety.  (I’m pretty fun, I know!)  Here are some of the best books I’ve found on the topics!*

Books With Practical Recovery Tips

Regaining Your Self: Breaking Free From the Eating Disorder Identity by Dr. Ira Sacker
This book helped me understand aspects of my personality that made me vulnerable to an eating disorder, and helped me consider how I could construct a “new” self that wore less extreme, more productive versions of these personality traits.  The author has been treating patients with eating disorders for many years, and he writes compassionately, which made me feel understood and motivated to find my new passions in life.  He shared real life stories of patients who have recovered, which made me feel like there was actually hope for me.

Beating Ana by Shannon Cutts
Each chapter begins with a letter from a person struggling with an eating disorder, who asks a question about how to address a specific recovery challenge.  The author (in recovery herself) shares advice, journaling prompts, and assignments in response, and ends each chapter with a “life celebration affirmation.”  The affirmations and recovery workshops in this book are pretty helpful, and it definitely made me feel less alone to read that other people had struggled with the same “practical” issues I struggled with along the recovery path.

The book has a heavy emphasis on joining a mentoring program to help you in recovery.  I didn’t join the mentoring community that the author recommends, but I agree that it is imperative to have mentors and recovery “role models” and confidantes who are walking the road with you.  I have found my community through blogging.

Life Without ED by Jenni Schaefer
This book is kind of simplistic and a little cheesy, but I REALLY like that the author helps you differentiate between “your” voice and the eating disorder’s voice.  It helped me view the dialogue between the unhealthy and healthy voices in my head as just that—a dialogue—instead of simply doing what the unhealthy voice said to do because it was louder.  If this explanation makes no sense to you and makes you think I’m losing it, this book probably wouldn’t help you.

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D.
I don’t know what my therapist thought when I voluntarily checked this book out from the library, but it was probably something along the lines of “you’re ALL KINDS of fun!” Anyway, I used this workbook to help me understand how to approach foods and eating situations that scared me.  It’s super practical, and I would definitely recommend it.

 

Faith-Based Books That Helped With Recovery

Shame Off You by Alan Wright (since I read it, it’s been retitled Free Yourself, Be Yourself)
This book changed my life! Before reading it, I hadn’t realized how much my low-self esteem and feelings of inadequacy affected my relationships, decision-making, and view of myself.  I felt constant pressure to be perfect, to make others proud of me, and to “accomplish.”  I was always fearful that what I was doing wasn’t enough.  Even when I accomplished my goals, I felt nervous and anxious.

This book helped me realize how much I was being affected by my shame and inadequacy, helped me examine where it came from, and helped me realize how God viewed me and how much He wanted to heal me from the issues I was dealing with.

Healing for Damaged Emotions by David Seamands
When I was home from college being treated for anorexia, I took a few online classes from Taylor University so I wouldn’t fall too behind in school and so I would have something to do.  The classes that I wound up taking were so perfectly appointed by the Lord—it was crazy.  For one of my classes, I had to write a paper on this book. Here’s an excerpt:

“Seamands’s book was very healing for me as it drove into me the acceptability of my brokenness.  I was very touched by Chapter Three which presented Jesus as the Wounded Healer, fully capable of understanding my pain as well as healing it.  I had never pieced together all of the various hurtful emotions He was forced to endure on Earth.  I found it sad yet relieving that He truly has experienced the same things I am fighting every day, because at times I feel guilty for feeling these emotions.  Yet if He felt them, there can be no shame in them.

I also appreciated His suggestion that we cannot have a real relationship with God until we are comfortable being our “real” selves.  It made me feel that perhaps I can use this time of brokenness and exposure in a positive way to grow closer to the Lord in a way I have not ever been able to before.”

Healing is a Choice Devotional: 10 Weeks of Transforming Brokenness into New Life, by Stephen Arterburn
This book is the devotional companion to Healing Is a Choice, which I never read.  I picked up this slim book at the bookstore when I was barely willing to admit that I had a problem.  It was a huge step for me to buy this book, much less to consider its premise, but its small size comforted me.  It couldn’t challenge me THAT much, right?

Wrong.  Every day, Arterburn provided a powerful meditation, poignant thought, or journaling prompt.  Though short, each day’s entry basically went like an arrow into my heart, and it was the perfect length for my starvation-dulled brain to comprehend.  I would HIGHLY recommend this book!

Breaking Free: Discover the Victory of Total Surrender by Beth Moore
I studied this book with a friend who was working through sexual abuse and some of the coping behaviors she had used deal with that pain.  We both benefitted from the book, especially when it explained how our family histories may have influenced the issues we were struggling with.  It helped us talk about and process how to change the cycle and how to fully surrender our burdens to the Lord instead of just accepting that they were part of our lives.

I’m at 1000 words and I have more books to recommend, so how about a Part II post? It will cover “books that helped me understand eating disorders better, books that helped me deal with the grieving process, and memoirs.”

In the meantime, what books have helped you deal with any of these topics or with healing in general?

*All pictures from amazon.com

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