The Overcoming Bulimia Workbook: Your Comprehensive Step-by-Step Guide to Recovery

Randi E. McCabe · Tracy L. McFarlane · Marion P. Olmsted

Jan 2004 · New Harbinger Publications

About this ebook

Severe dieting often results in periods of reactive binge eating, a phenomenon experienced by one in twenty American women. Responses to these periods may include prolonged fasting, self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives and diuretics, and obsessive exercise: all symptoms of bulimia.

This workbook contains tools to help bulimics break the cycle of bingeing and reacting, allowing them to take control of their lives and make positive behavior changes. Practical advice and real-life examples reinforce attitudes and offer encouragement. Discover that it is possible to overcome the disorder and live a happier, more fulfilling life.

Through their cutting-edge research at the internationally renowned Toronto Hospital Eating Disorders Program, the authors of The Overcoming Bulimia Workbook have developed a step-by-step program for recovery whose efficacy has been proven in clinical trials. The authors empower bulimia suffers to take control of their lives, not only by providing information and advice, but by giving them a personalized format with which they can put these new behavior changes into practice - a process that is critically important for lasting recovery.

This comprehensive guide covers everything from bulimia's symptoms, causes, and risks to how to normalize eating, shift eating-disordered thoughts, build on personal strengths, improve self-esteem, deal with underlying issues, prevent relapse, and understand what medications can help. With many real-life examples, this book also helps readers learn through the experiences of other sufferers how to overcome their disorder and live a happier, more fulfilled life.

About the author

Randi E. McCabe, Ph.D., C.Psych., worked for several years at the University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital Eating Disorders Programme, a world-renowned program in the field of eating disorder treatment. She has published chapters and articles on this subject and has presented at the Eating Disorder Research Society, an international conference for eating disorder researchers. She also maintains a private practice specializing in eating disorder treatment. She is a Staff Psychologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Traci L. McFarlane, Ph.D., C.Psych., is a Staff Psychologist at the University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital Eating Disorders Programme and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She has presented at many North American and international conferences on the topic of eating disorders and has published chapters and articles in this area. She is also a CBT therapist on a National Institute of Mental Health study for preventing relapse in anorexia nervosa, conducted jointly by the University of Toronto and Columbia University.

Marion P. Olmsted, Ph.D., C.Psych., is the Director of the Ambulatory Care for Eating Disorders Programme at the University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She is a well-known expert in the treatment of eating disorders and has presented at numerous international scientific meetings and published many articles and book chapters in this area. She is also a co-investigator and CBT therapy supervisor on a National Institute of Mental Health study for preventing relapse in anorexia nervosa, conducted jointly at the University of Toronto and Columbia University.