Eat Without Fear : Harnessing Science to Confront and Overcome Your Eating Disorder

This book is a guide for individuals affected by eating disorders and their families on how to use exposure therapy to address the eating disorder. Exposure therapy is a treatment approach that involves confronting (rather than avoiding) challenging scenarios that evoke distress. When patients confront these distressing scenarios, although it is difficult for them, they are able to learn that their distress often decreases and they are able to tolerate this distress better than imagined.

Eating disorders are serious conditions that can be hard to treat; however, the chances of overcoming an eating disorder increase when exposure therapy is used as part of the overall treatment strategy. Exposure therapy involves confronting (rather than avoiding) challenging scenarios that evoke distress, and though this technique has typically been used mainly by psychotherapists, people struggling with eating disorders can use it on their own to reduce troubling eating behaviors. Eat Without Fear provides practical, reader-friendly information about this innovative, scientifically-supported approach, as well as guidance on how to apply it effectively to beat an eating disorder using a "team approach" that involves family members, friends, and other loved ones. Readers will benefit from the use of easy-to-understand language describing the key concepts of eating disorders and how exposure therapy can help treat them. Additionally, the book guides readers through therapeutic activities that enable them to effectively practice exposure therapy techniques on their own. Given the value of involving family members and other supportive people in the eating disorder recovery process, this book encourages collaboration between readers and their loved ones and offers practical suggestions for how they can work together to achieve their desired goals.