The Anorexia Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Triumph Over Teenage Eating Disorders [Hardcover]

Linda Rio (Author), Tara Rio (Author), Craig Johnson (Commentary)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 2003 | ISBN-10: 157954729X | ISBN-13: 978-1579547295 | Edition: 1

"Last night I asked my mom some questions about bulimia and anorexia. I thought for sure she would know what I was doing to myself. How could a mother not know the terrible things her daughter was doing?"

"Tara seems fine these last few days. The questions she asked me the other night scared me. But now I think she's just curious. Maybe one of her friends is having a problem with something."

Mother and daughter, living in the same house, yet at times it seems as though they are on different planets. Tara, growing obsessive about the way she looks, feels her mom no longer understands her. Linda, while concerned about the changes her teenage daughter is going through, is focused on making a career for herself as a family therapist. Neither knows how to reverse the terrible path that Tara is heading down.

Tara's and Linda's side-by-side diaries of this difficult time, only shared with each other years later, show both sides of their maddening ordeal and inspiring victory to keep their family together.

In addition to sharing their actual diaries, Tara and Linda look back on the drama of those years to offer the wisdom and perspective that can only come with hindsight. Craig Johnson, Ph.D., an international leader in the research and treatment of eating disorders, offers useful advice and fascinating commentary on the Rios' story to inform today's families who may be going through similar situations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mother Linda and daughter Tara chronicle the years of Tara's eating disorder through their diaries in this honest, raw account. As Tara, diagnosed with bulimarexia in high school, explains: "Basically, I eat very little and whatever I do eat I throw up." Feeling abandoned by a mother focused on developing her career, Tara directed the anger she felt toward Linda and her sometimes volatile family toward herself. "All I know for sure is that from the moment I hung my head over the toilet and felt the rush of adrenaline reach my temples, I knew I was in love. Like a heroine addict longing for the next hit, I would sit in class and daydream about when I would get the next opportunity to vomit," Tara writes in one of the "Looking Back" sections that contextualize and reflect upon the diary entries. When Linda learns of Tara's vomiting, she writes, "I'm not going to waste any time in getting her (us!) help....That damn kid is sick-really sick....Oh god...grant me some wisdom." The diary entries are striking counterpoints to each other, and reveal their authors' struggles as Tara's eating disorder and a suicide attempt land her in a mental hospital and Linda agonizes about Tara's "depressive obsessions" and her own ability to be a good mother. Their later commentaries, which bookend each chapter, and Johnson's concluding advice and information in Part II are especially useful to anyone trying to understand these issues. The double entries sometimes repeat unessential facts, and as the book progresses, it loses some focus as Tara goes to college and deals with other difficult experiences, including a sexual assault. This is not a book about triumph, in the end, but about the long and arduous path to recovery. For those dealing with similar problems, it should offer insight and hope.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"I wish I had this book when I was trying to overcome my own struggle with anorexia and bulimia. Tara and Linda's courageous and dramatic story comes straight from the heart. You won't want to put it down. Dr. Craig Johnson's reassuring advice and thorough explanations take the mystery out of the illnesses. This is a very helpful and interesting book. Read it and share it with others."--Paula Abdul, star of TV's American Idol, Emmy Award winner, and Grammy Award-winning recording artist

"The interwoven diaries of daughter and mother go beyond a typical autobiography and offer a poignant view of Anorexia Nervosa as it unfolds from the inside looking out. Tara and Linda's ultimate success highlights how important it is never to give up on yourself and never to give up on your children."--Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., president of the Academy for Eating Disorders and William R. Jordan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"I highly recommend this very informative and interesting book because it is so positive and yet illustrates the struggle to recovery so well. The painful and necessary steps in recovery emerge in the journal pages of mother and daughter, and Dr. Craig Johnson's insights provide an excellent understanding of the causes and treatments of eating disorders."--Pauline Powers, M.D., president elect of the National Eating Disorders Association and founding president of the Academy for Eating Disorders

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (July 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157954729X
• ISBN-13: 978-1579547295
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,620,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Superficial and simple, November 8, 2003

By 

Meredith Price (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anorexia Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Triumph Over Teenage Eating Disorders (Hardcover)

Without trivializing the sufferings of the Rio family, I honestly feel like this book offers no insight to the complexity of anorexia nervosa. Tara's eating disorder - which was not anorexia at all, but bulimorexia - was a relatively short ordeal, and she did not hide it from her family like many sick young women do (or like the excerpt from the back of the book would have the prospective reader believe she did). Introspection is nihil - rarely expressed is sentiment deeper than "I feel fat". Moreover, the overall tone is self-centered, as the authors never speculate upon the epidemic nature of the disease; I call this sort of self-congratulatory, non-academic memoir "victimization literature." For these reasons and more, I cannot recommend this title as a quality account of an eating disorder.

4.0 out of 5 stars A gift of the Anorexia, August 15, 2011

By 

J. Wilson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Anorexia Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Triumph Over Teenage Eating Disorders (Hardcover)

I purchased this for my wife--she's a psychotherapist whose clients are 15--21 year-olds. She'd run across a copy belonging to a colleague and she found it both interesting and insightful. As to her satisfaction now that she possesses a copy I cannot say--we've not spoken of the book since it arrived.

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it., September 4, 2003

By 

Aly (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anorexia Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Triumph Over Teenage Eating Disorders (Hardcover)

I was attracted to this book when I saw it on the "New Releases" shelf at the library. I could tell it hadn't been read, and the title appealed to the voyeuristic part of me that enjoys peering into people's (published) diaries. I found the book to be extremely insightful and interesting, as it beautifully and honestly depicted the inner workings of a teenage daughter and her mother. I loved how the book was frank and blunt, (as I suppose it had to be, being a real diary) and it truly opened my eyes to the trials and tribulations that a mother faces while watching her daughter go through sickness and coming of age.
I would recommend this book to any female I know.