Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too by Jenni Schaefer, Thom Rutledge

Product Details

Synopsis

Eight million women in the United States suffer from anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia. Life Without Ed offers hope to all those who suffer from these often deadly disorders. Jennifer Schaefer named her eating disorder Ed. Ed helps people see the disease as a relationship from which they can distance themselves.

Publishers Weekly

"The truth is we all talk to ourselves. We just need to get better at it," counsels psychotherapist Rutledge in this self-help book for women with eating disorders, which he wrote with one of his patients, Schaefer, a singer/songwriter and media personality in Nashville, who both binges and purges. As might be expected in a book that draws from both psychotherapy and country western music, the story concerns a fine woman and the no good man she's stuck with. In this case, the evil, controlling character is a non-person Schaefer names Ed, from the initials E.D. (as in eating disorder). Whether Schaefer is alone in her kitchen or dining with friends, she "hears" Ed telling her she resembles a "barnyard animal," that all the girls in her eating disorder therapy group are thinner than she is, or that it would feel good to go to bed on an empty stomach. "There is something inside me... that has chained itself to Ed with a heavy-duty lock and thrown away the key," she writes. With the help of therapist Rutledge, who shares his professional observations in sections entitled "Thom's Turn," Schaefer finally gains the strength to keep Ed at bay. Schaefer's literary construct of an interior voice will delight some readers and annoy others, but if it helps any readers overcome their own disorders, it's been effective. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Jenni Schaefer appears regularly on television and national radio to raise awareness about eating disorders and recovery. She writes for self-help/recovery publications nationwide and has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Cosmogirl, Publishers Weekly, and Woman’s World. A talented singer and songwriter living in Nashville, Jenni devotes much of her time to speaking around the country about eating disorder awareness. For more information, visit jennischaefer.com.

Thom Rutledge is a psychotherapist and the author of Embracing Fear: How to Turn What Scares Us into Our Greatest Gift. For more information, visit thomrutledge.com.