Brain Over Binge

Book excerpt: After completely and independently conquering a debilitating eating disorder, Kathryn Hansen wrote Brain over Binge to share her struggle-and her escape from it-with those still trapped in the compulsive binge-purge cycle. Since the book's initial release in 2011, it has endured as an essential road map for using the power of the brain to erase harmful habits and create lasting change. The second edition is fully revised and updated with new information, compelling insights, and uplifting success stories that will inspire readers to break free from their own self-defeating behaviors.Brain over Binge is both a memoir and a scientific account, providing a gripping personal narrative and a research-based perspective on bulimia and binge eating disorder. Kathryn traces the course of her own condition and then describes in detail her unconventional approach to recovery. In the process, she offers a much-needed alternative viewpoint on the landscape of eating disorder literature to help others in the throes of any form of out-of-control eating.The mainstream view of bulimia holds that it's a complex disorder that manifests as a means of coping with deep underlying emotional and psychological problems. But the author resolutely departs from this philosophy, cuts through the confusion she experienced in traditional therapy, and simplifies both the origins of binge eating and its cure. As Kathryn explains the brain-based principles that led to her recovery from relentless bingeing and purging, Brain over Binge sheds current and crucial light on our human potential to overcome destructive patterns and reclaim our lives.