Cured: A Doctor's Journey from Panic to Peace

Anne McTiernan

Feb 2021 · Central Recovery Press

About this ebook

A trailblazing physician and health researcher shares her journey of perseverance and discovery.

Anne McTiernan's second memoir begins in 1982, soon after she completed her doctoral training in public health research at the University of Washington at the age of twenty-nine. She and her husband are now parents to four-year-old and three-month-old girls. Realizing that jobs in her field are scarce, especially for women, Anne decides the only option for their financial security is to become a medical doctor. Overcoming her fear and life-long struggle with inadequacy, she moves the family 3,000 miles to New York to begin medical school.

Within a few months of starting this new life, Anne is in deep trouble. She is overwhelmed by the competing demands of motherhood and medical training and feels isolated. The stress builds, until Anne suffers a series of paralyzing panic attacks that threaten her ability to function. She begins psychotherapy and starts on a journey of self-discovery, realizing she has to change to survive.

About the author

Dr. Anne McTiernan is a physician who conducts research on the effects of diet, exercise, and weight loss on cancer and health. She is a Full Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine in Seattle, Washington. She and her husband of forty-one years have two daughters and three grandchildren. Dr. McTiernan is the author of Starved: A Nutrition Doctor’s Journey from Empty to Full (Central Recovery Press, November 2016). Dr. McTiernan earned her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington in 1982. She entered New York Medical College in 1985, when her daughters were seven and three years old, and completed her internal medicine residency training at the University of Washington in 1992. Since that time she spearheaded many studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and held a leadership role in the Women’s Health Initiative. She is an elected Fellow in The Obesity Society and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. McTiernan edited two academic texts and has authored over 400 scientific articles in medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Research, and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.