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Paperback, 432 pg, ‘16
Product Code: EDA
ISBN: 978-0-936077-85-7
MSRP: $14.95

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Product Code: EEDA
ISBN: 978-0-936077-86-4
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Eating Disorders Anonymous

The Story of How We Recovered from Our Eating Disorders

Author: The General Service Board of Eating Disorders Anonymous, Inc.

DESCRIPTION:

Eating Disorders Anonymous: The Story of How We Recovered from Our Eating Disorders presents the accumulated experience, strength, and hope of many who have followed a Twelve Step approach to recover from their eating disorders. Eating Disorders Anonymous (EDA), founded by sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), have produced a work that emulates the “Big Book” in style and substance. EDA respects the pioneering work of AA while expanding its Twelve-Step message of hope to include those who are religious or seek a spiritual solution, and for those who are not and may be more comfortable substituting “higher purpose” for the traditional “Higher Power.” Further, the EDA approach embraces the development and maintenance of balance and perspective, rather than abstinence, as the goal of recovery.

Intended as standard reading for members who participate in EDA groups throughout the world, this book is accessible and appropriate for anyone who wants to recover from an eating disorder or from issues related to food, weight, and body image.

Initial chapters provide clear directions on how to establish a foothold in recovery by offering one of the founder’s story of hope, and collective voices tell why EDA is suitable for readers with any type of problem eating, including: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating, and orthorexia. The text then explains how to use the Twelve Steps to develop a durable and resilient way of thinking and acting that is free of eating disordered thoughts and behaviors, including how to pay it forward so that others might have hope of recovery.

In the second half of the text, individual contributors share their experiences, describing what it was like to have an eating disorder, what happened that enabled them to make a start in recovery, and what it is like to be in recovery. Like the “Big Book,” these stories are in three sections: Pioneers of EDA, They Stopped in Time, and They Lost Nearly All.

Readers using the Twelve Steps to recover from other issues will find the process consistent and reinforcing of their experiences, yet the EDA approach offers novel ideas and specific guidance for those struggling with food, weight and body image issues. Letters of support from three, highly-regarded medical professionals and two, well-known recovery advocates offer reassurance that EDA’s approach is consistent with that supported by medical research and standards in the field of eating disorders treatment.

CONTENTS:

Preface

Doctor’s Opinions
      Dr. Ray Lemberg's Opinion
      Dr. Sumer Aeed's Opinion
      Dr. Lacresha Hall's Opinion

Letters of Support
      Jenni Schaefer's Letter of Support
      Robyn Cruze's Letter of Support
      Pastor John's Letter of Support
      Roger C's Letter of Support

1 - Gisele's Story of Hope
2 - There Is a Solution
3 - More About Eating Disorders
4 - We Agnostics, Atheists, and Believers
5 - How It Works (Steps 1 – 4)
6 - Into Action (Steps 5 – 11)
7 - Working with Others (Step 12)

Personal Stories

Part I
Pioneers of EDA
1 Free At Last
2 A Life Solution
3 A Program For People Who Work It
4 One Day at a Time
5 One Step at a Time
6 Overcoming Unmanageability
7 Recovery is a Journey

Part II
They Stopped in Time
1 As Sick as My Secrets
2 A Treatment Professional Shares Her Story
3 Authenticity Freed Me to Find My Purpose
4 Faith in the Fellowship
5 Freedom Beyond Measure
6 Freedom Through Working the Steps
7 A Life Worth Living
8 He Used to Work for His ED; Now He Works for Joy
9 I Am Joie de Vivre
10 In God's Hands
11 Life Sentence Lifted
12 Recovery After Forty-Two Years of Bulimia
13 Recovery Opened a Whole New World
14 Welcoming Life with Open Arms
15 What Doesn't Kill You...

Part III
They Lost Nearly All
1 A Man Finds Hope and Meaning in Recovery from Anorexia
2 Break the Rules and Enjoy the Promises
3 Dancing From Darkness to Daylight
4 Dual Diagnosis
5 Following the Light of Recovery
6 Making the Most of Every Moment
7 Off to the Races
8 Owning My Story
9 Recover or Die: Sick of Suffering
10 Wicked, Hot Mess to Alive and Free

Appendices
Appendix A: The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of EDA
Appendix B: A Perspective on Balance
Appendix C: An EDA Member Works the Steps
Appendix D: Example Step 4 Inventory
Appendix E: Contacting EDA

REVIEWS:

"What you hold in your hands is the heart and soul of AA’s Big Book exquisitely linked with the experience, strength, and hope related to your struggle with an eating disorder. Unlike me, you won’t have to worry about swapping out words as you read. I wish a text like this had existed when I was lost in my illness. I am thrilled that the founders of Eating Disorders Anonymous made this book a reality."
—Jenni Schaefer, author of Life Without Ed

"Within the EDA text, it is proposed that the concept of a Higher Power can be embodied by the idea of a higher purpose. This allows those who do not embrace religious convictions to empower themselves with a higher level of life’s meaning, and enables them to evolve into more complete and resilient people. Innovative, significant and groundbreaking."
—Ray Lemberg, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, author of Eating Disorders: A Reference Sourcebook

"EDA offers the power of fellowship, a sense of faith however you may define it, common identities, the perspective of needing to let go of control, the myth it is all about food, and most importantly, hope."
—Sumer Statler Aeed, Ed.D., , Licensed Psychologist