Book review: Hope with Eating Disorders by Lynn Crilly
The more I got into this book, Hope with Eating Disorders: a self-help guide for parents, carers and friends of sufferers, the more I realised what a fantastic resource it is. Written by Lynn Crilly - whose daughter was diagnosed with anorexia at 13 and is now well - it’s an encyclopaedia of everything that parents and carers need to know about eating disorders, written in a clear, unbiased and engaging way, writes Batty Matty, mum to a teenage boy now recovered from anorexia.
I haven’t come across a book like this before. I’ve seen books that cover individual topics - for example males with eating disorders, guides to the full range of eating disorders, family case studies, guidance on supporting your child as they recover - but never a complete book that covers everything. This makes Lynn Crilly’s book an invaluable starting point for any carer struggling to come to terms with the fact their child is developing an eating disorder, or to ascertain whether or not the signs they are seeing are the green shoots of an eating disorder.
As Lynn points out, there is a host of different types of eating disorder but also an equally baffling array of treatment methods and practitioners. The only way to know for certain whether your child is receiving the best treatment for their individual condition, and play your essential role in their recovery, is to undergo a massive learning curve.
You can either do this the hard way and spend months using your energy to battle through the maze of different resources, sifting out the wheat from the chaff, discovering what may work for your child and what may not. Or you can buy this incredibly useful handbook and focus your energy exclusively on guiding your child towards a swift and sustained recovery. It’s as simple as that.
I wish Hope with Eating Disorders had been around when we started out on this journey three years ago.
