The Secret Language of Eating Disorders: How You Can Understand and Work to Cure Anorexia and Bulimia

This book provides the reader with an excellent understanding of what goes on in the minds and hearts of those struggling with eating disorders. It opens the way to understanding the correct method for interacting with those sufferers that have most often been misunderstood for being "selfish" and "controlling" and, thereby, treated by many of those in the helping professions in such a negative manner as to almost insure no cure for this disorder. Peggy Claude-Pierre gives us an inside look into the real hell eating disorder sufferers are living through and guides the reader through understanding and lovingly being a positive force in the lives of those with anorexia and bulimia, and get them the right kind of help to reverse this awful dis-ease and truly step into their own lives as the beautiful beings that they are, free to move forward in a happy and healthy way. I highly recommend this book to anyone touched by this horrendous disorder in any way - and especially those professionals that are coming from a place of "tough love." Hint ... the "tough love" approach doesn't work and is cruel treatment with no possible cure. The way to move beyond this disorder is through true understanding, love, compassion, commitment, and a positive attitude, which Peggy Claude-Pierre has successfully proven works. She is a true healer and blessing of the Universe.

Outstanding Book. A dedicated mother and Psychology Grad Student, heals her two daughters of anorexia and bulimia. This is a must read if you know someone struggling with this life threatening disorder!

Interesting different perspective on Anorexia and Bulimia. Seeing the illness as outside oneself and dealing with it, talking with it, answering it back seems to be a different but perhaps helpful way of fighting the malignant, evil voice that is in the child's head urging her on to destruction. The author certainly has credentials: she saved her children. I intend to incorporate some of her ideas into my own private practice.

Great copy of a great book. Fast shipping.

When I read the first few chapters of this book I was really impressed, but as it continued I got a bit skeptical. I've known lots of people with eating disorders and studied them for years. The theories in this book are enlightening at best, and disturbingly wrong at worst.Let's start with the good. The author of this book is very right to state over and over again that eating disorders are first and foremost MENTAL illnesses, and that simply making a sufferer gain weight is cutting off the stem and leaving the root. While her proposed condition of "CNC" can come across as a bit...bogus at times, it is true that the negative, obsessive and self-abusing thought processes of people with eating disorder MUST be changed and helped in order for them to recover. Along with that, it is very true that the punitive and bordering abusive methods used by some hospitals and treatment centers do nothing but cause more harm and worsen the EDs. Not to mention she goes on to say how damaging it is to tell someone suffering with an ED that they are "beyond help" or a "lost cause". Her ideas of using unconditional love and compassion are very good ideas, especially since individuals with EDs are often more starved for love and kindness than they are food. I also liked how she talked about the stages of recovery the survivors go through, which mirror normal human development. Along with all this it does a very good job of capturing the inner voice of the anorexic's mind which keeps her/him enslaved. This deeper understanding can help a lot of people make sense of why people with eating disorders behave in the ways they do, and how to figure out/see through "tricks" they use to still try and lose weight under the radar.That being said, this was a HEAVILY biased book. I was more than alarmed when I read the author of this book had her clinic closed down for abuse and unlawful practices--and that she had little to no formal education in psychology. A few things I found wrong or misguided was the fact that she repeatedly said how anorexics frequently have very loving, caring parents. That parents who are mean or unsupportive are the exception, not the rule. Now, I'm sorry but that's just not necessarily true. It's clear that aside from the many good parents who have taken their children to this woman to be cured, she is probably still trying to comfort herself over the fact two of her daughters were anorexic! I was also troubled by the fact she said there is no correlation between childhood abuse/trauma and eating disorders. This is also NOT true. It is no coincidence that people with eating disorders have very high rates of childhood trauma. Again, there ARE plenty of once happy children-with good parents who just develop eating disorders because of self-hatred and inner responsibility gone haywire like in her book...but there are also numerous victims of incest, domestic violence and rape who develop eating disorders to cope with the pain. Her lack of education in things other than eating disorders troubled me when she spoke about a preschool-aged boy who talked about the "people under his hair" who told him not to eat. Now, anyone with any sense would realize this child more likely has psychosis or another mental illness, and get that checked out before any treatment. But according to Peggy's "expertise", it was just the ED. There was another thing that just rubbed me the wrong way in the way this book was written. The author is clearly made out to be the patron saint of anorexics...and most of the happy "testimonials" from "cured" patients or dialogue throughout the book directly refers to her. It must also be said that it's not smart to fully trust anyone who says they have an almost foolproof "cure" for a mental illness.So I would say this book gives very good insight to the thought process of those with eating disorders, as well as a more gentle, non-blaming approach to treatment that will no doubt benefit any patients. However I would absolutely NOT put a lot of faith in all this woman's theories or treatment methods. There is a lot of good in this book, but proceed with caution.

This book is like no other - the author explains this from the inside - she clearly understands eating disorders and the mindset and how people can get better. It gave me hope at a time when I had one foot in the grave. Had I not found this book, I would certainly not be alive today.

I just really did not like the sound of her voice. Very condescending sounding.

Excellent. This book has been a life line to me as a parent. The author's compassion and track record of success with her patients (and children) has given me a path to deal with my daughter's suffering. It helps make sense of this crazy, illogical illness.

Peggy’s writing style is very accessible. She writes with compassion and humanity and explains her own personal experiences of helping her daughters get through anorexia and come out the other side.She then explains how she set up a clinic to help many others with eating disorders.She gives detailed explanations about the negative mindset of someone who has an eating disorder and then explains a process where they can be supported and helped onto a meaningful recovery path that doesn’t just address the weight issue, but goes way beyond that to gradually gradually reprogram the thinking patterns in the mind.This is groundbreaking book. I only wish the principles in this book were studied and taught to all practitioners trying to help people with eating disorders - and also many other mental illness conditions like clinical depression, severe anxiety and even psychosis, Schizophrenia, Bipolar and schizoaffective.I am now reading this book again and making notes about the key elements to help me as a carer for someone with a severe mental illness.

What a wonderful book! The author writes with profound compassion and deep, hard-won wisdom. Her understanding of anorexia is derived from the suffering of her two daughters, as well as from her own desperate search for answers as both became anorexic. I learnt life-changing lessons from this book, not only about how to help an anorexic relative but about the roots of other disorders as it dawned on me that the failure to mature into a solid sense of one's own selfhood leaves one wide open to personality disorders, as well as eating disorders. The sign of a really good book is that it has the capacity to change one's thinking forever. This book has done that for me. I'm tempted to say it is a great book.

Wow... A totally different perspective than anything else I've read on the subject. I don't care who the author is or what qualifications she does or doesn't have, this book is unique, incredibly insightful and profound.My only reservation is that it's written very much for anorexics and I found that some of the theories were less relevant to bulimia (as a life-long bulimic). However, much of it was very relevant and it is well worth the read for anyone with - or who knows someone with - disordered eating and self-image.

The human Nature being what it is, this wonderful is timeless: its humanistic principles have been successively applied for already many generations of sufferers, and can be applied for many more generations to come.Furthermore, its humanistic principles can be extended from anorexia to sufferers of psychosis and schizophrenia, for helping them to go through their personal crisis, i.e. a sane reaction for facing insane circumstances of life.

Really helped me to understand how low my daughter's self esteem is and how we need to constantly ensure she knows how much she is loved and how all sufferers from anorexia deserve a happy life.