Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

Kathryn Hansen

3.90 · Rating details · 2,085 ratings · 214 reviews

Brain over Binge provides both a gripping personal account and an informative scientific perspective on bulimia and binge eating disorder. The author, Kathryn Hansen, candidly shares her experience as a bulimic and her alternative approach to recovery. Brain over Binge is different than other eating disorder books which typically present binge eating and purging as symptom ...more

Get A Copy

Kindle Edition, 328 pages

Published January 1st 2011 by Camellia Publishing

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Brain over Binge, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Brain over Binge

Lists with This Book

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

100 of The Best Health and Fitness Audiobooks

101 books — 22 voters

Addiction, Change and Choice by Vince Fox

When AA Doesn't Work for You by Albert Ellis

Orange Pages Book Recommendations

57 books — 3 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.90 ·

Rating details

· 2,085 ratings · 214 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

Jan 14, 2016 Reneta rated it it was ok

OK. I am confused. The author has some good points, and I really liked how she questions conventional therapy. What I couldn’t handle was her “just stop” attitude. Really? REALLY?! Well, that’s one hell of a great idea, I’ve never thought of just stopping! Thanks for enlightening me.
Also, its repetitiveness is annoying.

flag 51 likes · Like · see review

Sep 27, 2016 Becca rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

If this book has helped or does help somebody, then great, but it also contains somewhere around, oh, a metric ton of terrible, even potentially dangerous, advice that is based in bad science, and I worry that for every person this book helps, it could be harming a hundred more. I'm not an expert in the functioning of the brain by any stretch (I sell tea for a living), but even I know that the author is way off in her interpretation of brain structures (if I were being less kind, I would say the If this book has helped or does help somebody, then great, but it also contains somewhere around, oh, a metric ton of terrible, even potentially dangerous, advice that is based in bad science, and I worry that for every person this book helps, it could be harming a hundred more. I'm not an expert in the functioning of the brain by any stretch (I sell tea for a living), but even I know that the author is way off in her interpretation of brain structures (if I were being less kind, I would say the author is way off in her regurgitation of Trimpey's interpretation of brain structures, since most of the ideas contained in this book seem to be block quotes with the word "bulimia" subbed in for "alcoholism", but I digress). What Hansen asserts as being distinct regions of the brain that battle each other for control are actually bizarre combinations of all sorts of different parts of the brain. For example, the "animal brain" she describes appears to correspond most closely with what is more commonly referred to as the "hindbrain" or "reptile brain", except the hindbrain does not contain the hypothalamus and is not "surrounded by...the cerebral cortex." Also, you cannot teach your hindbrain anything. It doesn't learn; it merely regulates. Learning is the forebrain's job. That's why the cerebral cortex, which, again, is not found in the hindbrain, is wrinkly in humans: Wrinkling something up allows you to pack more volume into less space, and in the case of human beings, having a more voluminous brain means we can store more information there. So, no, the author did not "teach" her "animal brain" to equate bingeing with survival. My guess as to what is more likely, she restricted calories to the point that her actual survival instincts piped up to say, "Yo! We need some calories and vitamins and minerals and stuff in here please!", but again, much like the author, I'm not an expert on the brain. When she carries on to say that the way she overcame her bulimia was not through any sort of therapeutic technique, but rather, by using her "human brain" to overpower the will of her "animal brain", what she may or may not realize is that SHE IS UTILIZING THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES IN SO DOING. Apologies for the all-caps, but the way the author undermines the value of therapy in treating eating disorders is absolutely appalling to me. Nobody should ever, EVER be discouraged from utilizing therapy in their efforts at becoming well in any area of their life; therapy is already stigmatized enough. But to get back to my point, in therapy, they teach you to challenge your "eating disorder voice", which is EXACTLY what the author is doing when she talks about using her "human brain" to outsmart her "animal brain". The terminology is all semantics; the theory remains the same. In addition to my qualms with the author discouraging people from seeking help from trained professionals, I also take issue with her implied acknowledgement that depression and anxiety are illnesses juxtaposed against her firm assertion that eating disorders are not. One cannot simply stop having an eating disorder, the same way that one cannot simply snap out of depression. Also, if eating disorders are not illnesses, then why did she respond so very well in the first place to her... wait, just wait... MEDICATION?! It was MEDICATION that kick-started her purported true recovery, and yet she claims her eating disorder was never an illness, merely gluttony and a lack of self-control. If both her claims that medication helped her overcome her episodes of bingeing and that eating disorders are not illnesses are true, then those facts stand in direct opposition to each other. I agree with Hansen on one point: I think the professional community (general practitioners, psychologists, psychotherapists, and the like) vastly undervalue the agency of the individual in one's own recovery process, and tend to subtly reinforce the notion that recovering from an eating disorder is an insurmountable task. People in recovery have their agency undermined at every turn and are generally told that trying to recover on one's own is an impossible task. Perhaps the task is only impossible because the people we perceive as being "the experts" keep telling us so. Absolutely, in recovering from an eating disorder, the burden is on you to do the work and make the hard choices that result in healthier actions, and in order to recover, one must take the personal responsibility for that. I believe that. What I do not believe is that recovery is a process better undertaken alone, because all of the professionals working in the field are misinformed and misguided. The truth is, not much is known about eating disorders, so sure, we may yet discover that current methods of treatment aren't the most effective. Hell, they might not even be good. But as of right now, the current methods of treatment are the best we've got, and nobody working in the field of medicine or psychology is striving to cause a person more damage, and to discourage any individual from seeking help, and to stigmatize those who already do so, is detrimental at best and dangerous at worst. ...more

flag 44 likes · Like · see review

Nov 26, 2020 Always Pouting rated it it was ok

This year has been a tiring one, and certain habits I had thought I had been rid of seemed to rear their heads again, including certain questionable ones around food. Someone recommended this book saying it helped them. I haven't given it a try yet so I can't speak to how much success I'll have but the thing is what the author did is basically some of the skills you learn when you receive DBT. I just had not really thought about utilizing those skills, or wanted to to be honest.

The problem here This year has been a tiring one, and certain habits I had thought I had been rid of seemed to rear their heads again, including certain questionable ones around food. Someone recommended this book saying it helped them. I haven't given it a try yet so I can't speak to how much success I'll have but the thing is what the author did is basically some of the skills you learn when you receive DBT. I just had not really thought about utilizing those skills, or wanted to to be honest.

The problem here seems to just be the author did not have therapists that made her feel like she had autonomy over her decisions, did not tailor therapy to actually address the behaviors she was seeking therapy for, and did not teach skills around eliminating compulsions/mindfulness to help monitor feelings without being overwhelmed by them. I think these are legitimate issues and the author would have done better with a therapy plan that utilized more DBT or even therapy to extinguish compulsions like those people with OCD received, which she cites in later chapters.

The thing is that while compartmentalizing your compulsions as part of your animal brain versus being "ana" or "mia" feels less cringeworthy, it still seems kind of dumb to me. I'm glad that way of framing things has helped the author but I don't think I can do it because my understanding of the brain doesn't lend itself to that framing. I do think I can come up with a framing that works for me.

The book felt a little long and repetitive because I don't think this really had to be a whole book. I also think that the framing of how the brain works was a little simplistic but I understand that that was just meant to be accessible and lend itself to allowing others to also frame their thinking in a way similar to the authors so they could utilize the same strategies. I just think some of the conjectures were not well founded, like the ones criticizing when people call their disorders "ana"and "mia", because the author isn't doing anything that much different.

I also don't think this can work well for everyone necessarily either. People have differing levels of executive control and impulse control. Some people may generally need to get to a better place emotionally before they can even want to recover. Even if the author thinks that she would have been able to stop binging even at her lowest point that doesn't mean everyone will be able to!

Mostly I think this book is useful for people who are concerned about stopping their binge eating or disordered eating behavior but who will also have the ability to dissociate from their compulsions and wait them out and exercise control over their cognitive process. And like with most behavior changes just changing your behavior is the harder part, I don't think this or anything else will be any sort of magic trick that necessarily makes it easier. I do think its important to feel like one can change ones behavior though and that even if you have mental illness that isn't an excuse for your behavior which seems to be what had been hindering a lot of the author's ability to recover.

Honestly though, you can probably skip the book because it really boils down to recognizing urges and feelings as separate from yourself, letting them happen and pass without acting on them. ...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

Nov 01, 2014 Sarah Clement rated it it was amazing

I had this book on my wish list for a long time before buying, and now I am kicking myself for having done so. Even though the reviews were so great, I was put off by the anecdotal spin on the book, and didn't like the language of "animal brain" and "human brain" (even though I knew right away the technical terms for the parts of the brain she was referring to...I don't like the terms she uses). I am someone who prefers science-based health information and tends to read n=1 experiments with a "o I had this book on my wish list for a long time before buying, and now I am kicking myself for having done so. Even though the reviews were so great, I was put off by the anecdotal spin on the book, and didn't like the language of "animal brain" and "human brain" (even though I knew right away the technical terms for the parts of the brain she was referring to...I don't like the terms she uses). I am someone who prefers science-based health information and tends to read n=1 experiments with a "oh, interesting. I'll wait to learn more to see if there's something in it." However, with this book, there was no need because I recognised right away that she was not selling a miracle cure but a way of thinking about recovery that is worth trying, especially for those of us who are turned off by traditional therapies.

My story mirrors hers in many ways, including that first foray into therapy where you're like "why are we talking about my mum when I'm starving myself?" Unlike her, I never returned to therapy, but like her my anorexia transformed into binge eating. Although I quit purging long ago, I still binged on a regular enough basis that it interfered with my life, and my "food issues" have been a heavy burden for nearly 20 years. I want to shout my praises of this book over the rooftops because it is the ONLY thing that has worked for me. Other people may find that deep soul searching and focusing on "fixing" their relationship with food, their past, their present, and the way they cope with life is the answer. But for me, I needed to hear this. There is nothing broken about me. The bingeing started after a perfectly reasonable trigger (intense restriction during anorexia), and it continued because it became a habit. Just like any other habit, I (we) have the capacity to break it using my pre-frontal cortex. The urges to binge are the problem, and whatever the initial cause was, this matters less than how I can stop it. This book provides the tools to do so.

What I didn't expect from this book - besides its beautiful simplicity - was that she is so real about recovery. This is not the beautiful butterfly tale where she fixed her bingeing and changed her life. It is a tale of someone who fixed her bingeing and continued to have all of the challenges and complexities of life as a human being. Some may be disappointed and feel this isn't inspirational enough, but I personally found it far more attainable and just plain obvious. Waiting to stop bingeing while you 'fix' all of the things you believe are triggering it and learning to cope like some idealised "normal eater", only perpetuates the harmful belief that you are somehow a deficient/damaged human being. The author points out time and time again that you are not. Sure, there may be things about you that made you more prone to developing this problem in the first place, but that does not mean you are broken. It does not mean you are diseased. You have all the tools you need to quit, and the plasticity of your brain will help you form new neural connections, while the connections that developed around bingeing weaken.

My greatest hopes are that more women find this book, and that researchers take this strategy and study it further. There is a lot to be learned here, and what do we have to lose? We are not helping people with bulimia and BED very effectively, and this is a path to recovery that is so simple and takes advantage of all we've learned about the brain. Maybe we can stop many more people for believing they were broken for 20 years, and feeling like this was just their lot in life, like me. The fact that I didn't need to climb some proverbial psychological mountain and find inner peace to stop binge eating, and that I am not a broken human being, was exactly what I needed to hear. And the recovery you get may not make you a beautiful butterfly, but it also won't make you tamed house pet (one of her excellent analogies). There is no need to take it one day at a time once you've formed new connections in your brain and let the old ones atrophied. You do not need to carry the label of "recovering binge eater" for the rest of your life. You can use the past tense, and it doesn't need to be an ongoing struggle. ...more

flag 28 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2015 Mima added it

Shelves: nonfiction

my prefrontal cortex: This is a very interesting new way of looking at obsessive behaviors. It's worth a try, and I love the message that I'm all I need.

my lower brain: What a horror! Imagine you being responsible for your actions. Imagine you being able to stop them at any given time! Imagine not having deeply rooted problems that make you do things which are beyond your control. I find the prospect nauseating, gimme food.

At moments I got annoyed with her 'just stop' attitude (woman if I could ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2013 Gabriela rated it it was ok

She has a new way to 'cure' bulimia, but I despised everytime she said 'just don't do it'. Self-indued vomit is way harder to stop, specially when it is simpler everytime you do so. Yeah, binge eating is annoying but she doesn't embrace the fact of free time. When you stop doing behaviours you have so much free time, even if you have friends, school, or work. That's one of the things that she didn't talk about, that a lot of people tend to fall back because it's the thing they do on their 'free ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Nov 22, 2012 Lynne Blair rated it it was amazing

This author has hit the nail on the head. I have been searching my entire life for a way to stop binge eating. Therapy and counselling don't work. Restrictive diets don't work. It's all about the brain and how it processes information. Only someone who has experienced the onset of binge behaviour could have found this solution. The info in this book can be applied to any compulsive or addictive behaviour. I'm hoping that a month from now I will ten pounds lighter and binge free without counting ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2016 A rated it it was ok

I don't really understand how an author gets a book about a health condition published when they admit in the prologue that they don't remember where most of their sources came from. What even is this ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2014 Amy Kearns rated it it was ok

As others have said, this book isn't long but it could have been half as long. SO repetitive!!!!! ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2016 Az rated it it was ok

after few hundreds pages , when the author finally get to the point of the book ,she only writes few sentences about it and then go back to talk about her life and struggle .

the point didn't really help , i think what did really help Kathryn was the years of going to therapists and trying a lot of things . ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2015 Isabella Roland rated it it was ok

This book is poorly written and poorly organized. It is opinionated rambling at best. If you are looking for a very personal antidote of ONE person’s journey, this is it. To me that was not helpful. It was very boring to trudge through and I’ll admit that I only made it half way. I probably wouldn’t be so bitter if I hadn’t paid nearly $16 for this useless information.

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2015 Courtney Lindwall rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, self-helpy, 2015

Kathryn Hansen's solution for recovering from bulimia or Binge Eating Disorder is both irritating and empowering in its simplicity: Just stop binge eating.

For those of us that are stuck in the cycles of destructive behavior, that doesn't seem like much of a life raft to throw us. And yet, it resonated with me. The core of Hansen's argument is that once we realize the urges to binge eat comes from a primal part of our brain and not the more advanced, decision-making part of our brain, we can dis Kathryn Hansen's solution for recovering from bulimia or Binge Eating Disorder is both irritating and empowering in its simplicity: Just stop binge eating.

For those of us that are stuck in the cycles of destructive behavior, that doesn't seem like much of a life raft to throw us. And yet, it resonated with me. The core of Hansen's argument is that once we realize the urges to binge eat comes from a primal part of our brain and not the more advanced, decision-making part of our brain, we can disassociate with the urges, ignore them, and break the habit. We can also recognize that every single binge is a decision we had control over.

Hansen disagrees with the vast majority of ED therapy. Typical therapy seeks to find the root emotional cause of bingeing, whether it be anxiety, depression, or childhood trauma. This has become almost common knowledge, somehow. Eating disorders are "never about the food," we hear. But Hansen argues that they are in fact ONLY about the food. The binges arose as survival tactics from an initial diet (almost all bulimics began as restrictive dieters), then became hardwired through a powerful and overwhelming physical response system. Eating disorders have to do with the literal and physical synapses created in your brain that demand and reward binge eating. That's it.

This means we don't have to solve our psychological traumas before recovering. This means we don't have to rationalize with these urges or try to understand them or wonder what emotional hole they're really trying to fill. This also means that the only way to make them go away, literally THE only way, is to begin to say no. You have to stop the reward system in your brain. You have to break down the deeply rooted urge for something your body thinks it needs but actually doesn't. You have to simply will yourself in control of the binges, and the physical manifestation of the urges will break down in your brain.

She sites neural plasticity as both the reason for the disordered behavior (destructive habits take hold when the binge pattern is repeated), but also as your savior (these habits can be broken by changing your brain's response system to urges).

Her ultimate message, although perhaps a harsh reality check for those in the midst of a very very difficult time, is this: You are not diseased; you are not sick; you are making the decision to continue; you can choose to stop today, right now, and forever; it is undeniably hard, but the only way for it to get better it to choose to stop now.

I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 because I'm still skeptical to see how this advice plays out in my own life (and it's also a tad repetitive). I have heard amazing things about the effectiveness of this new mindset. This book has definitely empowered people and ended BED for many. But it seems to good to be true. It seems too simplistic. And so we'll see.

Wish me luck. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2018 Alex rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction, self-help

This book needs an editor, a fact checker, and a much larger bibliography. Lots of regurgitation from other sources, pseudoscientific explanations, therapy naysaying (based on her own experience), and REPETITION. This point has been brought up already in reviews, but therapists actually use a similar approach to this. This whole book could be summed up in a single paragraph.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 03, 2017 Michelle Curie rated it liked it

Shelves: science, nonfiction

I read this book out of curiosity, after a friend who suffered from bulimia mentioned how it has helped her overcoming her eating disorder. Brain over Binge is the account of a woman who has suffered from bulimia for many years, tried both medication and therapy without lasting results, until she figured out how all it would take her to recover is a new understanding of what was happening in her brain when she felt the urge to binge.

Bulimia and binge eating are definitely serious topics - it's l I read this book out of curiosity, after a friend who suffered from bulimia mentioned how it has helped her overcoming her eating disorder. Brain over Binge is the account of a woman who has suffered from bulimia for many years, tried both medication and therapy without lasting results, until she figured out how all it would take her to recover is a new understanding of what was happening in her brain when she felt the urge to binge.

Bulimia and binge eating are definitely serious topics - it's life consuming, health damaging and the mental strain is often immense. Many affected from it want to stop, yet they fail to get out of the vicious cycle that tells them to binge and then purge, which again leads to another urge to binge. What helped Kathryn Hansen was the following:

"Because the human brain houses your true self and your voluntary muscle movements, you - your true self - have ultimate control. In the case of bulimia, "it" cannot control whether or not the bulimic will open the refrigerator or drive to the nearest fast-food restaurant to binge."

Understanding that gave her a feeling of control and with that the power to resist the urges. Her idea is that our brain is split in two parts - the rational and conscious part and the "animal brain", which function is to make you eat in order to live. As she tried to diet, her animal brain felt alarmed and urged her to eat more and as she kept giving in to those urges, it became habit even long after her weight was restored. The solution was to be aware of the "animal brain", but then view it as neurological junk and not pay it any attention.

I thought her perception of therapy was very interesting. I have a background of psychology and eating disorders are something I intuitively approach from a scientific view, where they tell you that it's a disease like any other, with binge-eating being a symptom and underlying personal problems being the cause. But what is such a diagnosis to somebody who just wants to quit binge eating?

"Because of what I learned in therapy, I often confused what was recovery from bulimia with what was just life."

Hansen sees in binge eating the cause and not the symptom of a problem. Her therapists told her to work on her self-esteem, to become a happier and more balanced person. It makes sense, it's desirable, but it's something everyone has to work on to an extend and why make your Binge Eating Disorder dependent on how close you are to reaching a mental homeostasis, if that can take years to reach (if ever!).

It's an interesting thought and I felt like I did gain a new perspective on the topic. It is definitely aimed at people who suffer from a Binge Eating Disorder themselves and may be interesting to those who have not had success with conventional therapy. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2015 shaimaa rated it did not like it

to be honest I didn't like it at all, I don't know why it has a high rate..
didn't enjoyed reading it ,not even a bit . ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2017 Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker rated it it was amazing

Life changing book. There's a lot of repetitive information, however the purpose the book was read for was met. And I feel like a new woman. Here's to continued recovery and education on all levels. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 15, 2016 Marina (Sonnenbarke) rated it liked it

Shelves: _psychology

I took some notes about this book and published them in my Facebook page, so here they are as I've written them (with minor changes).

#1

First of all, this is going to be personal, so if you don’t want personal, just skip it.

The book addresses bulimia and binge eating disorder (BED). Now, I never was bulimic, but I was quasi-anorexic and I most definitely was a binge eater, afterwards.

In a way I can understand what the author says, because I stopped my binges abruptly more or less 4 months ago ju ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 03, 2020 Seluxes rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

The retired clinician in me cringed through this attempt at a self-help book when it really works better as a memoir—of sorts—because the advice is dicey at best, and I'll hold my tongue for an at-worst. As someone who also has managed to put an eating disorder into remission only after years of trying nearly everything, I have a lot of empathy for Hansen even when I disagree so very strongly with her conclusions and action plans.

Basically, Hansen offers: just don't binge. Speaking for myself on ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 20, 2020 Perry Ryan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I mean, I read this for utility's sake. Self-help books aren't really going to be graded like other books might be. And I'm not sure it's really working. I've suffered from Binge Eating Disorder for my entire adult life, pretty much. I've told a few people about it but this is the first time I'm saying it "publicly" (does anyone even read these?), which is weird, but, I feel like I should be more open about it. I started this a long time ago when I was looking for anything that would help. This ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2013 Yuting Yin rated it liked it

Shelves: eating-disorders

Cannot understand why rating is so high. Might be helpful for some people but for me it makes little sense. The recovery was described as if it's so dramatic that it is merely facilitated by a small self-help book called Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction. I'm speechless. However, the author do offer some insights including her question towards conventional therapy and her thoughts about dieting. As what is said in "NOTICE OF LIABILITY": this book is a personal story and can ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2016 Larisa rated it liked it

Shelves: dissertation, sr_2016

I am all for a book about eating disorders that avoids romanticizing them or otherwise falling into stereotypical narratives about their significance. I also like that this book considers issues in the philosophy of psychiatry (albeit in an very casual way), especially those connected to responsibility.

That said, I have five major issues with this book (aside from the fact that it's repetitive and far too long): First, the author overgeneralizes from her own experiences of therapy despite sayin I am all for a book about eating disorders that avoids romanticizing them or otherwise falling into stereotypical narratives about their significance. I also like that this book considers issues in the philosophy of psychiatry (albeit in an very casual way), especially those connected to responsibility.

That said, I have five major issues with this book (aside from the fact that it's repetitive and far too long): First, the author overgeneralizes from her own experiences of therapy despite saying that she's not doing that throughout. She spends too little time and attention on the ways in which her own symptoms and approach to therapy may have informed her success with the Rational Recovery/Brain Over Binge method compared with other approaches she'd tried. Second, she keeps saying how the fact that her animal brain gave her urges to binge didn't make it unhealthy. I think what she's trying to say there is that those urges to binge are a kind of evolutionary glitch related to certain survival instincts and the fact that lower brain structures aren't particularly responsive to rational argument rather than some fundamental defect of hers. But arguably that glitch is itself unhealthy, and it's unclear what she's trying to do by saying that it isn't - to distinguish herself from people with "real" mental illness? It just made me kind of squeamish. Third, Hansen talks as though she had the choice to stop being bulimic at any time simply because she has free will and therefore has a choice not to binge. Even if that were true, it ignores the fact that some choices are a lot harder to make and to carry out than others. Fourth, she seems to endorse the view that her true self is just her "human brain" as if her lower brain is morally inferior or something. Hate to say it, but we wouldn't be alive without our lower brains, and it is a dangerous road to go down equating free will solely with rationality and rationality with certain brain regions and not others! Finally, the recovery approach she talked about involving mindfulness and distancing herself from her urges to binge sounds very much like certain therapeutic techniques from e.g., dialectical behavioral therapy that are becoming much more popular in eating disorder treatment. And Hansen talks as though CBT never involves revaluing urges to engage in pathological behavior - I would have thought talking about them as deriving from "cognitive distortions" is a kind of revaluing. Her method is also a psychological process with neurological consequences, not the other way around, so the way she presents it in terms of directly intervening on her brain is a bit misleading.

I am all for pluralism in eating disorder treatment, especially because the orthodox treatment methods have a relatively low success rate, but I think this book presents a view that is just the beginning of an alternative as an all-but-universal solution to binge eating and bulimia. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 11, 2018 Emma rated it did not like it

Shelves: psychology, biographies

This is not some revolutionary account of how one woman recovered from her eating disorder, as the author would like to pretend it is. She says that conventional therapy didn't work and takes every opportunity possible to disparage it, but her miracle cure (and I'm saying miracle cure because they way she paints it, she read a book and was magically able to stop bingeing and purging) is literally just mindfulness. There's also a decent amount of something I learned in therapy called "ED separati ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2014 Kate LaChapelle rated it it was amazing

Some of those who are close to me know that I've been struggling with BED for over 8 years and not so healthy eating habits for much longer. This book is honestly the first time I've read something that helped me feel like I understand what's going on inside of my head and (hopefully) how to stop it.

I do agree with some other reviewers and even with the author that this is for people for whom traditional therapy methods don't/haven't worked. I don't have some deep emotional reason for why I star ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2019 Stephanie rated it really liked it

My main takeaway here is that to understand and end an eating disorder, you don’t have to solve all your other life problems- it’s a separate thing.

There might be triggers, but you can stop binging without needing to first fix your relationship with X person and even without needing love yourself fully.

This awareness is crucial because I think therapy does pull an ED sufferer away from the issue itself. I had a therapist tell me straight away an ED often will last years or forever...that basic ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2017 Amber Ross rated it it was ok

I read this due to recommendations from other people who binge eat. In the beginning, I was super hopeful on getting some great insights into how to stop my own vicious cycle. But that is not really what I got. Her whole great revelation is to just... stop bingeing. To tell your animal brain to back off. That's all well and good, but how is that sustainable? I suppose with will power, which I lack currently. I would've liked MORE personal information from her regarding struggles. She really bash ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2016 Victoria rated it really liked it

I liked the critical approach. Her ideas, although not unheard of, were non conventional, but well explained and supported by lots of studies. Overall impressed by the authors ability to self reflect, her strong voice and honesty. Very repetitive though.

• style 3/5
• pace 1/5
• impact 4/5
• information 5/5
• bonus: innovative concepts +1

Total: 3,5/5

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 11, 2019 mistyprose rated it it was amazing

This book rationalizes eating disorders, specifically bulimia and binge eating, and makes you realize that you ultimately have complete autonomy over your behavior. The author uses her personal anecdote to relay her struggles with bulimia (binge eating and purging through exercise) for many years throughout high school and college, to then come to the realization that nothing about her needed to be "fixed" in order to cure her bulimia. Traditional therapy made her feel that her depression, anxie ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 03, 2020 Julie Bouchonville rated it liked it

Weird opinion on that book. On the plus side, I like the core notion : instead of focusing on what your triggers might be and aiming for what you realize ("i have a weird relationship to food because my uncle used it as a reward!") to sortof magically cure your eating issues, you just look at your urges to overeat and say "yeah no you're just an old bit of my brain yelling at me to get the food while I can. I wont do that, thanks". That's a pretty cool approach - if you already have enough pract ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2019 Jessica Gillies rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology, food

This book has been on my radar for a couple of years now, having heard about it from various Youtubers who've found it useful. It wasn't until I saw the reviews on here I realised how polarising this book has been.

Certainly this book is not without flaws (probably the biggest being the sample space of one- the author- the method presented was tested on; while mostly poo-pooing traditional therapy). Yes, the book is very repetitive (though I found this helpful in reinforcing the concept) and cou ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2020 Elena rated it really liked it

This book in its approach reminds me a lot of The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. It's all about realizing you don't really need it or want it and it doesn't own you.

Good concept, I really do feel like it helped me in a way and might help others.

That being said, the book was unnecessarily repetitive and redundant. I already understood the entire point after reading just the first third of the book.

It's not as scientific as you'd think, just a recollection of the author's information amas ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review