The Deadly Diet: Recovering from Anorexia and Bulimia

Rating:
Summary: A Cognitive Approach to Eating Disorders
Review: This book is very heavily based on cognitive and rational-emotive therapy as a way to control emotions, and therefor destructive eating patterns. Dr. Sandbek talks about the differences between constructive negative emotions (like sadness) and negative destructive emotions (like depression), and their consequent constructive and destructive behaviors. You learn to recognize that destructive emotions come from distorted thoughts. He recommends taking all the ugly things one says to themselves and thinking of it as a seperate internal voice. Then you learn to argue with and defeat the "Voice." Dr. Sandbek also emphasizes time management and stress reduction techniques. On the negative side Dr. Sandbek doesn't appear to have an iota of a feminist perspective in him (at one point he recommends anorexics look Playboy so they can see how much thinner they are then women "men consider attractive"), which is startling considering how many women this disease affects. This isn't too much of a concern however, since clearly his intent is to help women overcome disempowering emotions and behaviors, with clinical proven cognitive tools.