ABSTRACT
The concept of this book arose out of our experience of writing a self-help book for bulimia nervosa Getting better bit(e) by bit(e) (Schmidt & Treasure, 1993). Although it seemed simple to write a sister volimie for anorexia nervosa I soon realised that the situation was much more complex. Bulimia nervosa is a secret condition in which others are rarely involved. In contrast, the problem in guiorexia nervosa is overt, anyone can make a "spot diagnosis". Also, one of the key features in anorexia nervosa is the fact that the sufferer herself doesn't think she has a problem. This feature was noted in the earliest cases (see Chapter 4). In the past, this has been termed "denial"; I now prefer to label this as the "precontemplation" stage of the process of change.Therefore, it is common to have the woman with anorexia nervosa blithely unconcerned as she becomes sicker and sicker while everyone around her frets and panics and gets sucked into her orbit.
