The Anorexia Workbook: How to Accept Yourself, Heal Your Suffering, and Reclaim Your Life (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) (Paperback)

by Michelle Heffner (Author), Georg H. Eifert (Author), Steven C. Hayes (Foreword) "A few years ago, a teenaged girl named Emily reluctantly entered our clinic, feeling pushed into treatment by her concerned mother..." (more)
Key Phrases: serenity creed, clients with anorexia, mindful observer, Romantic Relationships, Anorexia Team, Name of Person (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"You will learn to accept and live with the uncontrollable thoughts and feelings that haunt you about your weight, and you will learn to take charge and move your life in directions that you value," promise the authors, both specialists in treating people with anorexia. They use the ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) philosophy: Accept the thoughts and feelings, and commit to actions that take charge of your life in a positive way. Step by step, you learn to understand that what you've been doing isn't working, deal with emotions and thoughts more effectively, identify your life values, start living a life that reflects those values, and cope with barriers. The overriding point is that you can act before you "get things right in your head." The style is warm, simple, and accepting--no stern lectures or commands to eat. The workbook has large pages and is well laid-out and easy to follow. Each chapter presents bulleted preview points at the beginning, clear content, and plenty of self-tests, exercises, and worksheets to get you immediately involved in each part of the process. Highly recommended for people challenged by anorexia and those who love them or work with them. --Joan Price

Product Description
Use the New and Effective Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to:
· Accept Your Thoughts and Change Your Behavior
· Cope with Critical Self-Talk Using Powerful Mindfulness Techniques
· Choose to Live a Healthy Life

Despite ever-widening media attention and public awareness of the problem, American women continue to suffer from anorexia nervosa in greater numbers than ever before. This severe psychophysiological condition—characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, a persistent unwillingness to eat, and severe compulsion to lose weight—is particularly difficult to treat, often because the victims are unwilling to seek out help. This book uses innovative new techniques based on a revolutionary model of psychotherapy called acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, to teach readers that efforts to control and stop anorexia may do more harm than good. Instead of focusing efforts on judging impulses associated with the disorder as "bad" or "negative," this approach encourages sufferers to mindfully observe these feelings without reacting to them in a self-destructive way. Guided to this more compassionate, more receptive frame of mind, readers are coached to employ various acceptance-based coping strategies.

Structured in a logical, step-by-step progression of exercises, the workbook first focuses on providing readers with a new understanding of anorexia and the ways they might have already tried to control the problem. Then the book progresses through techniques that teach how to use mindfulness to deal with out-of-control thoughts and feelings, how to identify choice that will lead to better heath and quality of life, and how to redirect the energy formerly spent on weight loss into those actions that will heal the body and mind. Although this book is written specifically to anorexia sufferers, it includes a clear and informative chapter on when readers need to seek professional treatment as well as advice on what to look for in a therapist.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications; 1 edition (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572243627
• ISBN-13: 978-1572243620
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #205,720 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Helpful Book, February 7, 2005

By	Juan C. Macera "The Master Researcher" (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very practical book, and I would advice to read anyone who is involved with anorexia: patient or therapist. The one who suffers from anorexia will undestand the characteristics of the disorder and how to deal with it by herself. For the therapist this book will provide useful ideas based on the real life experience of the authors. This is a very compasionate book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book of hope help and reassurance, February 4, 2006

By	Mrs. L. Grocott "author of Cut the Strings" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Written in such a way that it helps people to understand how to overcome the addiction of anorexia and its hold on one's life. In doing that it makes it possible to change one's mindset instead of just covering up the layers.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars helpful, January 26, 2007

By	goldilocks "books to live by" - See all my reviews

This book was helpful. It did not cure me. What it did do was help me realize that I didn't want to keep going in the path I was in. After having the eating disoder for many years and refusing help the entire time, thats actually an accomplishment. I would recommend this book to anyone who is on their last leg and not sure what to do.