Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia by Harriet Brown

May 22, 2012 La Petite Américaine rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: auto-bios-etc, i-want-my-money-back, sucked, worst-garbage-i-ve-ever-read, rants

****Update: 25/3/2012: The massive thread that follows just totally reaffirms every point I made in the review. All of this from a writer whose work appears in the New York Times? Nice. Enjoy.****

****Update: 21/3/2012: I need to give credit where credit is due. For an eloquent and informative review (NOT AUTHORED BY ME) of Brave Girl Eating that, unlike my review, places facts over rage, please see http://www.amazon.com/review/R1F9BQBA...

For scathing snark and wrath, my review is below.****

***S...more

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Oct 03, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I rarely read non-fiction, but I found this one to be excellent. The author is a science journalist who writes about her family's experience with a teenage daughter's anorexia. I liked how proactive the author was dealing with the disease. Her writing style was clean and there is a lot of reference to past research studies, which was very informative. As the mother of a teenager, (albeit a 14 yo boy, whom I can in no way ever visualize restricting food, but I could certainly relate to the parent...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mental-health, memoir

Harriet Brown's "Brave Girl Eating" is the story of her daughter Kitty's descent into anorexia and the long road of recovery for the entire family.

When Kitty decides she needs to lose a little weight at age 14 after a nutrition class, she eventually slides into the body dysmorphism and deliberate eating restrictions that lead to so many cases of anorexia in teen girls today.

Brown talks not only about Kitty's anger about being made to eat again, but also about the effects of Kitty's recovery on h...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Lesie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Extremely disappointed in this book...
While I am empathic with the writer and know how traumatic it is to experience this disease within a family, I am shocked by Ms Brown's denial and her rejection of all psychological theory. The way she labels her treatment team "Dr Newbie"??? She is disrespectful and uninformed. I have been treating eating disorders for 30 years. Family Oriented Treatment is something I applaud when it works but it still needs to be supervised by a therapist regularly and a...more Extremely disappointed in this book...
While I am empathic with the writer and know how traumatic it is to experience this disease within a family, I am shocked by Ms Brown's denial and her rejection of all psychological theory. The way she labels her treatment team "Dr Newbie"??? She is disrespectful and uninformed. I have been treating eating disorders for 30 years. Family Oriented Treatment is something I applaud when it works but it still needs to be supervised by a therapist regularly and a nutritionist as well as the physician who should be taking blood and checking vitals regularly. Sometimes Family Based Treatment does NOT work for a family but Ms Brown would have readers believe that it is the only way to go. She states if her daughter does not go back to school she would feel like a "freak?" I am horrified by her use of language and shudder to think that my young patients and their families would read this book. The girls I work with who cannot attend school because of their illnesses are NOT freaks or misfits. The girls I work with who need hospitalization are not "mental cases" and she is extraordinarily wrong to think her daughter is fundamentally different from the other girls. I am not saying she needed to place her in a hospital (although at that weight, I would have immediately done so until she got to normal weight and THEN used FBT) I would not have my child potentially die at home, emaciated with barely a heartbeat.
She seems to have no interest in finding out why her daughter may have developed Anorexia and just makes the assumption that it IS totally biologically based because she was so perfect and the family was so perfect prior to her sudden illness. Eating Disorders absolutely are biologically based but exploring other emotional issues is relevant. This idea is completely ignored. She continually refers to her daughter as the most wonderful child ever until the day the illness took hold but even once she knew that Kitty was desperately ill, no treatment was given for weeks! What was that about??? If I didn't have room for a new patient for three weeks, I would have referred her to someone immediately, just to make certain this child was being treated. And if you do not like your treatment provider, you find a new one. FAST...I know how much denial is present with mental illness and with any illness but Ms. Brown's denial takes on new heights.
I admire this family's courage and commitment to feeding Kitty and it saved her life (so far). But there is no depth. There is no sense of what Kitty is feeling only that she becomes NON KITTY which I know is Ms Brown's way of referred to the Eating Disorders voice but Kitty's regression emotionally leaves me to believe that her psychological difficulties are greater than just her Anorexia. I have treated 100s of cases and her behaviors are not the norm...To ignore this piece is very concerning to me. I only wish this family well and some of the facts (such as the recovery rate, etc) are accurate but many are false. Just false. There are some cases where EDs can be predictable; others not. But she states that there are no predictors. For a scientific writer to ignore thousands of studies and research is astounding to me.
I may sound harsh but it is only in the review of this story. I am troubled that the families who may read this may take this as fact rather than one family's journey. I say that because of Ms. Brown's writing style. She states things as facts when they are opinions. She is entitled to these opinions but she does not help families struggling with their own EDs. I think she meant to rather than to simply write her own memoir but it is unclear if she means to be helpful to others.
I have a patient's parent reading this book now, asking me if her child should read this story. This is what prompted me to get the book. I would have to say absolutely not. Her constant put downs of mental illness and her description of the mental facility is unfeeling and unkind. She may not have wanted Kitty there but the children who ARE there are as worthy as her own daughter and do not need to feel like the freaks she makes them out to be.
Sorry but I would have liked to hear her story of Family Based Treatment along with accurate facts about Anorexia and some honest insight into her daughter's plight.(less)

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Oct 09, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, food, psychology

This very personal account can serve as a guide and give some hope for families wrestling with this illness. While I haven't read all 72 reviews, I've read most of them. My review will mention 3 issues I haven't seen covered.

I am not sure how this successful re-feeding actually worked, when previous attempts to get Kitty to eat before did not. Many of the things the author did, she had tried had before. Perhaps it was the threat of feeding tubes. Perhaps it was the author's new found perseveranc...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Karyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: truly-great-books, non-fiction, psychology, science-health

I just spent more than half an hour responding to La Petite Americaine's review of this book and somehow it got deleted. I will try to repost it in more detail the next day or so; for now, let me just say that her inexplicably vitriolic review is uninformed, ignorant, and just plain wrong. Her stereotype of anorexics coming from dysfunctional families with overbearing mothers has been discredited for years; family based therapy (of the kind that Harriet Brown recommends) is the ONLY evidence-bas...more I just spent more than half an hour responding to La Petite Americaine's review of this book and somehow it got deleted. I will try to repost it in more detail the next day or so; for now, let me just say that her inexplicably vitriolic review is uninformed, ignorant, and just plain wrong. Her stereotype of anorexics coming from dysfunctional families with overbearing mothers has been discredited for years; family based therapy (of the kind that Harriet Brown recommends) is the ONLY evidence-based therapy used to treat eating disorders, and its success rate is well over 70%, while other programs have dismal rates in the single digits and tremendous recidivism.

Anorexia is a serious mental illness (and the one with the highest mortality rate) so uneducated people with their own agendas like LPA should defer to those with more experience. Brown spends chapter after chapter in Brave Girl Eating detailing the latest science and studies about anorexia (they have recently found a genetic link between people with autism and people with anorexia), so how the reviewer can make the unwarranted claims that she does is unfathomable to me.

Her ad hominen attack on the courageous Harriet Brown ( she claims Brown is out "whoring" her daughter to make a buck) is disgusting, as is the entire tenor of her review. Far from sounding compassionate about people who suffer from eating disorders, LPA comes across as an angry, hate-filled, paranoid person. When, in the comments, a medical doctor refutes her claims, she challenges him to produce his credentials- why would he bother to lie? Another reader who defended FBT and Brown is dismissed by LPA as not credible, simply because she had never posted on Goodreads before. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

I, too, am new to Goodreads. I am also a medical researcher, having collaborated with a team of Cleveland Clinic doctors on a recently published book about the heart. I am a high school teacher who has taught and mentored- and cared about- scores of girls with anorexia who have spent years in and out of the inpatient facilities that LPA lauds. Finally, I have personally spent agonizing months doing Maudsley with a family member who might not be alive were it not for the treatment described in Brave Girl Eating.

I wish that I could have written this book, but Harriet Brown did a much better job than I could have dreamed of doing. So my job will be to crusade to see that this important book makes it into every school library and onto the shelves of every parent whose child is being stolen away by this awful disease. And while talk of "karma" clearly upsets our esteemed reviewer, she had better pray that no parent decides not to buy this book which could save her child's life based on this vitriolic review.

One final note: my son is 25 years old, married, has 2 gorgeous daughters, and lives on the other side of the country from me. And he still calls me "Mommy." Can't imagine why that's a crime or evidence of serious dysfunction; La Petite Americaine must be carrying around some serious baggage. (less)

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Mar 27, 2012 Eva Musby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A must for parents of kids with anorexia. This book was recommended at a parents' conference by dietician specialising in the treatment of anorexia. It’s written by a journalist whose daughter spiralled into anorexia at age 14. It’s a flowing and gripping read, practical as well as moving. This family followed the route of Family Based Treatment, caring for their daughter at home and helping her to eat. They received advice from Daniel le Grange but had to make do without a certified Family Base...more A must for parents of kids with anorexia. This book was recommended at a parents' conference by dietician specialising in the treatment of anorexia. It’s written by a journalist whose daughter spiralled into anorexia at age 14. It’s a flowing and gripping read, practical as well as moving. This family followed the route of Family Based Treatment, caring for their daughter at home and helping her to eat. They received advice from Daniel le Grange but had to make do without a certified Family Based Treatment therapist.

If your child is suffering from anorexia, this is what you’ll find in this book:

. A source of support as you discover that the stresses and challenges are similar for all parents whose child has anorexia. For this reason this is also a good book to ask your parents and relatives to read, so that they understand what you’re all going through.

. At the same time, this book doesn’t dwell on despair, so unless you’re extremely vulnerable right now, you should find that reading it doesn’t turn you into mush, but helps you move forward.

. This isn’t a “how-to” manual, but a memoir. All the same, if you’ve been asking yourself, “yes, but how do I actually feed my child?”, there is enough in there about food-related conversations and strategies to give you some practical help, Certainly more than I’ve seen in any other book so far (though do check out Youtube videos by C&M Productions http://www.youtube.com/user/CandMedPR...).

. It gives you an insight into what’s going in the child’s mind, when they wish to eat but need their parent to make the decision for them.

. The author did considerable research and gives you just enough science to help you understand the nature, effects, and possible causes of the illness. As it’s inevitable that at some stage, parents will have their terrible sorrow added to by the uninformed comments of friends or relatives, this is another reason to buy this book: a copy for each friend who needs to understand this illness beyond chat show level pop-psychology.

The only thing that’s not 100% spot on with this book is … the cover of my UK edition. That elegant young woman languidly musing over a little dish of scones has nothing to do with the violent, devastating and passionate world of anorexia. And knowing the world of publishing, I bet it has nothing to do with the author’s view of the topic either.(less)

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Mar 10, 2012 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

*Brave mother writing*

Although this book is entitled _Brave Girl Eating_, the title of _Brave Mother Writing_ would be equally fitting. Courageously chronicling her family's struggle with her daughter's anorexia, Harriet puts into words the devastation, pain, raw emotions, obstacles, frustrations, confusion, and exhaustion that too often overwhelm families haunted by the demons of eating disorders. The book reads like a gripping novel, but it is packed with valuable information on family-based e...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Nancy Kennedy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book of how one family coped with their daughter's anorexia is quite simply riveting. I read it all in one sitting, all 269 pages. I have not experienced an eating disorder in our home, but I have seen it in the home of a family member. I'm appalled now by my simplistic way of thinking about the disorder. "Why can't she just eat?" asks the distraught father in this book. Why, indeed.

Harriet Brown chronicles her daughter Kitty's struggle honestly and graphically. Of course, the story itself...more This book of how one family coped with their daughter's anorexia is quite simply riveting. I read it all in one sitting, all 269 pages. I have not experienced an eating disorder in our home, but I have seen it in the home of a family member. I'm appalled now by my simplistic way of thinking about the disorder. "Why can't she just eat?" asks the distraught father in this book. Why, indeed.

Harriet Brown chronicles her daughter Kitty's struggle honestly and graphically. Of course, the story itself is compelling but on top of that, Ms. Brown's just a great writer, a journalist who has had the privilege of retreats to elite writing colonies like Yaddo.

What sets this family's journey apart from many others is that they chose to treat the disorder with "family-based therapy." This means that instead of being sent away to an institution of some sort -- the way most anorexic sufferers are -- FBT assumes that staying within the family provides the most effective means of recovery. Only one in three patients ultimately beats anorexia in an institutionalized setting, Ms. Brown finds out, while 80 percent do so within a family setting. She went with the numbers.

So begins the family's days of counting every calorie Kitty takes in, forcing her every bite, watching her every move to ensure she doesn't vomit up her food, hide it in a napkin or in her cheeks or any of the many other tricks anorexic people perfect. They endure months and months of her anger, despair and what seems like total madness. Even when Kitty's doctor finally says the family can lighten up, that all is safe now, it really isn't, and they end up stuggling to regain 25 pounds of lost ground. While everyone around her says food is not the issue, that her daughter needs more control over her life, Ms. Brown is convinced it IS about the food, it's about the calories. It's about taking more control of her daughter's life, because anorexia has robbed her of her ability to make good decisions.

Ms. Brown's visual picture of a "demon" taking over her daughter is an effective way to understand why Kitty thinks and acts the way she does. She discovers that even her daughter's voice changes when she expresses the obsessive and self-condemning thoughts of an anorexic. Yet, Ms. Brown learns, the problem isn't all in her daughter's head -- there are physiological reasons an anorexic person struggles to take food in and to gain weight even on a 4,000-calorie-a-day diet.

Because many anorexic people struggle to remain well throughout their lives, you wonder when Kitty goes off to college at the end of the book whether she will make it or whether, like many anorexics, she will descend into the despair that leads to suicide or whether she will return to her "restricting" habits until her body withers away and her heart stops beating. It's to Ms. Brown's credit as a writer that readers are anxious to hear about Kitty's fate, to know that she is well. I sure would like to know that. (less)

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Dec 22, 2011 Kelli rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall, I thought the book was very insightful about the suffering a family endures when a relative has an eating disorder. You rarely hear about eating disorders from this perspective, so I thought it was very unique. I also was ultimately glad I read it because I was very unfamiliar with the approach.

The points that bothered me were her stance with psychology and her writing style. Perhaps I'm defensive both because I'm a psychology major at school, and I go to therapy, but it really bothere...more

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Lesie A couple of hours of studying sources should have led her to understand the varying underlying issues which do include biologically based EDs. But her...more
Mar 06, 2013 11:29am

La Petite Américaine Interesting points. And imagine what it's like trying to be her kid with an illness when her mom's attitude is like that with stragners.

I believe tha...more
Mar 06, 2013 11:34am

Sep 03, 2011 Spook Harrison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-mental

This book, Brown's writing, is so vivid that for the first chapter and a bit the insides of my wrists hurt and I felt ill reading it. This is such a powerful story, and Brown's style of writing is the perfect balance of scholarly research, memoir, and journal article, that I don't want to put it down to sleep! The many facets through which we look at the disease and those affected by it both directly and indirectly (even marginally, as all social interactions are affected by an illness) are fasc...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I always have a difficult time discussing my experience with anorexia. It's not that I'm ashamed of it. It's just that it was a very long time ago now (my second bout ended about 12 years ago). Do I say that I'm an anorexic? That implies an active, ongoing issue, which isn't true. But I can't say that I'm not one anymore, because I know for a fact that it never totally goes away. The thoughts are there - they come back at odd moments. I'm particularly susceptible during times of high stress, alt...more I always have a difficult time discussing my experience with anorexia. It's not that I'm ashamed of it. It's just that it was a very long time ago now (my second bout ended about 12 years ago). Do I say that I'm an anorexic? That implies an active, ongoing issue, which isn't true. But I can't say that I'm not one anymore, because I know for a fact that it never totally goes away. The thoughts are there - they come back at odd moments. I'm particularly susceptible during times of high stress, although the older I get, the quieter the anorexic voice is. Do I say that I'm in remission? That implies a level of illness that I've never been comfortable admitting to.

So how to discuss such an amorphous topic, especially when most people aren't comfortable talking about it at all? Perhaps that's one of the problems with eating disorders. People don't want to discuss them - really discuss them.

I think that's one of the best things about this memoir of anorexia. It's absolutely unflinching, and yet surprisingly lacking in self-blame and guilt (a good thing, I think). Written by the mother of an anorexic - and thank god, for that, I say, this is a voice that's seldom heard - it is deeply moving. I occasionally like to read these books about anorexia to remind myself of that dark place I never want to go back to. The daughter's story really resonated with me; I could remember so much of my experience in this story, right down to the fact that it happened the summer that this girl turned 15 (also when I had my first bout). I often found myself in tears because it all seemed so familiar, and after a while you begin to forget how truly awful the experience was.

If you really, honestly want to understand what the eating disorder experience is like for an anorexic - oh god, the terrible, terrifying irrationality of it - this is a good book for it. Brown has amazing insight into what her daughter was feeling, better than a lot of books I've read that were written by anorexics themselves. Be forewarned that it seems repetitive after a while, which is why I'm not giving it more stars.(less)

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Patricia When I was ten my friend across the street, who was twelve, became anorexic. She eventually had to be hospitalized and she permanently stunted her gro...more
Aug 02, 2011 04:08pm

Patricia Also, at first glance, the cover looks disturbingly like Twilight. Was no one aware of this?
Aug 02, 2011 04:08pm

Jan Evidence shows that being exposed to someone else's eating disorder at a young age makes one more inclined to develop one, so I'm glad to hear that it...more
Aug 08, 2011 07:51am

Jul 09, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of these types, manuals or memoirs about E.D. and maybe one or two were pretty good. This book....was really really good. It's not a dry, full of statistics and studies and history of eating disorders but rather a detailed account of literally how one family handled the illness of their 14 year old daughter. The author, journalist Harriet Brown has a wonderful easy to read style of writing that keeps you reading even if you could care less about anorexia, which was what this girl...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Cindi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Harriet Brown's daughter Kitty is fourteen years old when she and her husband realize that something is very wrong. Kitty refuses to eat and is losing weight rapidly. When Kitty ends up in ICU, they understand that the problem is severe and Kitty is diagnosed with anorexia.

Instead of sending Kitty to a live-in rehabilitation center, Harriet and her husband decide to try Family Based Therapy (FBT) also known as the Maudsley approach to help Kitty overcome the anorexia demon that has taken over....more

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Nov 07, 2010 Donna Lyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

really good book but sooo frustrating at the same time. i feel for both of her daughters and was left hanging because sadly she ends the book with her daughter still in the hold of the eating disorder. i think that the mom had a lot of empathy for the disease which is rare but i truly think she 'gets it' - what it's like in the mind of an anorexic. the book was mostly about the refeeding process and not the emotional healing. it's not about the food but the mother makes it about the food and yes...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Charlotte Phillips rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a very personal and helpful book for myself and it is one that I am glad to have picked up and read. Being anorexic you tend to get so stuck in how the diesease is affecting you, that you forget about the other people around you that have to live with it as well. But its not as if there are many books out there written by those living with the disease, most of them are written by the sufferers who are representing there discovery and there recovery, which whilst helpful, still doesnt gi...more This was a very personal and helpful book for myself and it is one that I am glad to have picked up and read. Being anorexic you tend to get so stuck in how the diesease is affecting you, that you forget about the other people around you that have to live with it as well. But its not as if there are many books out there written by those living with the disease, most of them are written by the sufferers who are representing there discovery and there recovery, which whilst helpful, still doesnt give you that much depth and insight into the totality of the illness. However this book is written by the mother of a daughter who has anorexia and she shows the battler, strife and journey that they have to go through. It shows hard times and good times, the lows and the highs and all the different solutions that they came across, some of which worked and others which didnt. At first I was a little closed minded about the novel as I wasn't sure that I was really going to benefit from it. After all, am I not the one suffering from the illness, so am I therefore not the one who should know about it? Yet this book proved to me that there was still so much more that I didnt know. Things that I didnt know about myself, or the illness or even the way it was actually affecting my family, those who I love and treasure the most.

In many ways, this book for me was an eye opener and a heart grasper. It showed me that the way I had been acting was all for a reason, it wasn't just me being stupid or seeking for attention. It was all for a logical reason, one that perhaps is complicated to overcome. However the mum who writes the book is amazing and she made me smile in so many ways, as well as reminding me of my own mum. She shows that sometimes we have to fight battles as a family, but that there will always be someone who is hurt more, who feels left out and is angry with the battle itself, questioning why it has even had to happen and exist. She goes into a lot of detail about the research she has done, and usually that is the sort of thing that bores me, but this time it interested me because she wrote about it in a way that I could understand. It was almost as if the mother was wanting both the family and the sufferer to understand the information, because a huge problem with most self help books is that they are so full of jargon and information that is hard to understand. However, Hasrriet writes with a huge sense of reality, and it is clear that she is writing from her heart and her personality, she wants the reader to really connect, she wants the reader to see and realize that this is a serious problem and that its not just her daughter who is going through it.

In many ways you could say that the author is challenging the stereotypes and discriminations that are placed on those suffering from an eating disorder. In her book she makes it very clear that the support avalible to those suffering from eating disorders is not wide enough and usually not efficent or safe enough for them. But what she really points out is that there isnt much support for the families either and they usually get the blame for the anorexia or bulimia having developed in the first place. I think that this is a real eye opening novel that has truly made me challenge my own eating disorder. But more importantly it has made me look at my family more closely, because the problem with the illness is that it is selfish and I have not realized the effects that it has on my family!!

A problem though that I find alot with the books on anorexia and bulimia is that they talk about the calorie content and weight increase, or decrease. They display the numbers, write what it is that they are eating and for any person already suffering from the illness this can be a huge trigger. it makes the anorexic voice speak up loud and clear, makes the sufferer think, hey perhaps this is a good idea after all. But Brave girl eating does not make anorexia or bulimia seem like a good idea. It shows and represents that it is a battle that tears the sufferer apart and pulls them away from there family. It shows how hard it can be to overcome and yet she writes about how worthwhile it is. Not once is she fake in her writing and her words touch your heart. It was a truly amazing and helpful book and it is one that I would recommend to all sufferers and there parents. Because even though it is aimed at the parents, I feel it is important that the sufferers understand what its like for those around them as well. (less)

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Oct 02, 2010 Allyson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wanted to read this book because I am the antithesis of anorexia. I couldnt understand how someone could willingly starve themselves. Do I want to be thin? of course! But to deny myself food, its not happening! This book helped me understand that it is more a mental thing, a brain illness, an inner voice telling you that you should not eat. My inner voice says that too, but I dont pay attention, LOL! Then after a while of self starvation, you seem to lose all sensations of hunger. Weird. Kind...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Cinnapatty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I don't know how to rate this book. I didn't really "like" it because who likes to read about such a life ravaging disease? I could give it five stars because it can be a life-changing book. I'll settle for four stars.

A friend, whose daughter is suffering from anorexia right now, recommended this book to me. I am still jaw to the ground. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who knows anyone who suffers with an eating disorder. It is a glimpse into the life of a family and their...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Jennie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book because I generally enjoy non-fiction and body image is something I'm interested in because of my line of work.

I liked the style of this book - it was well-organized, well-researched and also very obviously authored by a mother trying to save her daughter from anorexia. She struggles with the limited/useless advice of medical professionals, the guilt she feels for neglecting her "normal" daughter (and then feels guilty for considering her daughter with anorexia abnormal) along w...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

I really liked this book. I had read Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimiawhich I really enjoyed until reading Hornbacher's other memoirs, which made me realize that Wasted was a really self-edited version of Hornbacher's anorexia (what an unreliable narrator she was!).

This was a memoir from the point of view of a parent, and did go into some detail about old/new treatments for anorexia. It's obvious it's not "cured", and while I hope for Kitty's future she is able to beat the disease, I appr...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-rating-books

Brave girl eating was not an easy book to read. The story is of a 14 year old girl Kitty who's life is transformed when she is diagnosed with anorexia. Written by her mother Harriet she details all the way from the warning signs leading up to the diagnosis to four years later when she goes to college. Along the way we read about the Brown family of Kitty, Harriet, her husband Jamie and there youngest daughter 10 year old Emma having there lives turned upside down and there loving fight to save t...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Cayleigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

This was an impulse buy at a Border's that was going out of business. I only got it cause the title and picture piqued my curiosity and it was $2.50. Well, it was a VERY good read, one of those sit and read it so much that you are done in 2 days type of book.

We follow Kitty and her family as they deal with Kitty's anorexia. Harriet narrates the entire book from her perspective as Mom, but still does a good job of reminding the reader about the feelings of the other members of the family. The bo...more This was an impulse buy at a Border's that was going out of business. I only got it cause the title and picture piqued my curiosity and it was $2.50. Well, it was a VERY good read, one of those sit and read it so much that you are done in 2 days type of book.

We follow Kitty and her family as they deal with Kitty's anorexia. Harriet narrates the entire book from her perspective as Mom, but still does a good job of reminding the reader about the feelings of the other members of the family. The book only chronicles about a year and a half of their ordeal, from when Kitty was 14 and the anorexia was first discovered and until they got through the "re-feeding" process and got her to a healthy weight.

One of the biggest things that I liked about Mrs.Brown's narrative was that in the very beginning she states that she did not put any of Kitty's weights in the book, so that other people dealing with anorexia couldn't use the book as "thinspiration". This book was a real and intense look into this family's lives during this time. I came to really be invested in Kitty and rooting for hr to get better. The additional research that Harriet puts in as more explanation into the disease is really interesting.

I hadn't known about the differing treatments that are out there, but a lot of them seem really far fetched to be so followed. It seems odd to me that many professionals look down on the "FBT or Family Based Treatment" that Harriet and her family used. It makes so much sense on a visceral level that anyone dealing with something like this needs the support and help of their loved ones. Not the distancing of the sufferer from the family (both physically and mentally) like a lot of the other programs. The one quote in the book that I really like that describes the family based Maudsley approach says "At the end of the day, of course, no one knows what causes anorexia, and no one is likely to know for a long time, if ever, which is yet another reason why family-based treatment appeals to me: the Mauldsley approach says simply, "We don't need to know in order to treat the illness." FBT emphasizes recovery over etiology, results over theories. Human lives over intellectual jousting." To me that seems the most logical and best approach. (less)

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Apr 09, 2011 Audiaa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, biography, non-fiction, psychology

This book is told from the point of view of a mother of a young girl with anorexia. I was interested to read about the interactions between the mother and her daughter, which I think would have been much different if (the daughter) had been older. The family decides to try a method of therapy called Family based therapy, in which the parents determine the foods, monitor food intake, and prepare all the food for their daughter. This method seems to work, though I think seems is the key word. The...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Shilo rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would probably give this book a 3.5 or so, simply because it was very difficult for me to read. It tackles an incredibly difficult subject, and does a fine job of it... but it is certainly not an easy read. I found it especially disturbing and difficult as it resonated a bit too closely with some of my own struggles with food and eating, and also with anxiety and mental illness. This book both triggered anxiety and depression in me, and made me think a bit more closely about times in my teenag...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Arna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this in almost one sitting. An approachable and accessible style, and while it contains a mass of information, its style was not "dense". It was an interesting take on one of the most perplexing illnesses, and it was interesting to read about the effect of Kitty's anorexia on the entire family unit. While the main focus of the book was the decision of the author and her husband to try a non-traditional family based thereapy, tehre were some details that I would have like a bit more about,...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Robin Stansel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing book -- a very different perspective on causes and treatment of eating disorders. As someone with two siblings with eating disorders and a child in therapy for mental health issues, I was awed and inspired by this mother's dedication to family-based therapy.

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Feb 06, 2012 April Suter rated it 5 of 5 stars

What really appealed to me was the book is in the view of the mom, living through this awful illness and the daily struggles of loving the child--hating anorexia. Here I am having no problems throwing food in my mouth, and people with anorexia living with such a force to keep drink and food out of their mouth. The book is well written, mixing actually events with feelings and facts for many studies.

Quote: page 159 "One of the challenges in refeeding Kitty is the fact that she feels no hunger. So...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Bridget rated it 5 of 5 stars

Harriet Brown tells the true story of her and her family's efforts to save her daughter from anorexia nervosa. She has done thorough research into the nature and treatment of the disorder and weaves this information into the story. This information is not just intellectually interesting, it complements the emotional tone of the story. You can picture this frantic mother searching the library, internet, and every scholarly journal article on the topic in search of answers to help her daughter. Fo...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars

My college roommate struggled with anorexia during the time we roomed together and I know of many others who have struggled with an eating disorder at some time, or who still struggle. The perspective of a mother in the throes of her daughter's battle with anorexia is very interesting. She not only recounts their personal journey but also shares much of the research she uncovered during their quest for explanations and answers. In the end they chose Family Based Therapy over the traditional meth...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Toni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, health-fitness, eating-disorders

How I wish we had this resource 25 years ago when our family began our journey with the monster that is anorexia. Instead we had years of mediocre advice, bad advice and so-called experts who had no idea what to do or what approach to take. The Family Based Thereapy method Harriet Brown advocates seems (at this point in time at least) one that offers a more genuine hope of recovery for families dealing with an adolescent in the early stages of an eating disorder. In addition, the exhaustive rese...more

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