Eating Disorders and Weight Stigma Can Be Deadly; Physician on Mission...

Few mental illnesses are as misunderstood and underestimated as eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa carries the highest mortality rate of any mental illness recognized in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM–5), and many individuals postpone or receive subpar medical care due to weight stigma and discrimination experienced in healthcare settings. Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani, MD, CEDS, FAED, is on a mission to change medical care for individuals with eating disorders with her first book, "Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders." "Sick Enough" is the first book written explicitly for patients of all body shapes and sizes and their loved ones and explores what can happen to the body as a result of eating disorders and disordered eating. Within its first week of publication, "Sick Enough" was classified as an Amazon bestseller and #1 new release in Amazon’s “eating disorder self-help” and “psychopathology” categories where it remains at the top of both lists.

A graduate of Harvard, Boston University, and Yale, Gaudiani draws on her background as an English major and physician in presenting the medical complications of eating disorders using metaphor, storytelling, and patient-centered language. Gaudiani’s easy-to-understand language helps explain complex medical signs of body suffering due to food restriction (including dieting, fasting/cleansing, and inadequate fueling for athletes), purging, bingeing, over-exercising, and misusing medications with the goal of weight loss. Gaudiani uses her decade of eating disorder expertise in both inpatient and outpatient medical settings, and her experience speaking nationally and internationally on this topic, to educate patients, their loved ones, and other professionals.

In "Sick Enough," Gaudiani explains why you can’t tell who has an eating disorder based on their appearance, and how social justice themes are imperative when diagnosing, treating, and advocating for patients with eating disorders and disordered eating. She firmly rejects diet culture and refuses to recommend weight loss to patients, instead practicing in a weight-inclusive manner. Gaudiani also tackles the conundrum of patients with eating disorders who often feel they aren’t “sick enough” to merit treatment, despite medical problems that are both measurable and unmeasurable. "Sick Enough" offers validation for the real and numerous medical complications associated with eating disorders.

“Starvation can occur in people of any body shape and size.”

“Eating disorder ‘goggles’ cause distortions about what patients need to eat, what their body looks like, and where the dangers actually lie.”

“Our society has become unscientific in its overvaluation and fear of certain foods and food groups.”

Additional information, including book endorsements, can be found at http://www.sickenough.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.