It is commonly held that the sufferers of anorexia nervosa and bulimia are angst-ridden teenage girls who impose unrealistic beauty standards on their still-developing bodies. In Lying in Weight, Gura explodes the myths that adolescence is the only time of life that these disorders manifest and that women who achieve a normal weight after contending with eating disorders are "cured." Shockingly, tens of millions of American women -- overlooked by the medical and mental health communities because they're older than 25 and understudied -- suffer from "food issues" that can be linked to any number of disruptive changes and challenges throughout their lives. These triggers -- marriage, the birth of a child, menopause, stress from child rearing, marital difficulties and depression -- bring about emotional, psychological and medical problems that play out under the radar in women who live in the throes of food obsessions. Booklist “Gura proffers helpful counsel to those willing to heed it.”
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction: Confidences and Lies xiChronicity: The Myth of Recovery 1Adolescence: Girls in Women's Clothing: Eating Disorders Stunt Psychological Development 24Young Adulthood: She, He, and It: A Lover's Triangle 61Pregnancy: An Oasis in an Eating-Disordered Life 98Parenting Years: A Kind of Sibling Rivalry: When the Eating Disorder Competes with Children 136Midlife: Eating Disorders: Millstones or Stepping-stones? 188Late Life: Never Too Old to Be Too Thin 225Healing: The Ongoing Chapter in an Eating-Disordered Life 258Helpful Organizations 307Directory of Treatment Facilities 309The Clinical Definitions of Eating Disorders 315Notes 319Bibliography 351Index 353