Flagrantly Anorexic

For more than thirty years, Lisa Nasseff has faced the scourge of anorexia. She began dieting at age 9. By age 12 she was using laxatives to purge herself. By age 15 she made more than a dozen trips to the emergency room. At 16 she was committed by court order to a psych ward, where doctors spent months trying to convince her that childhood sexual abuse—which had never occurred—was the cause of her illness. She was ridiculed and shamed for her eating disorder, told by medical professionals that her anorexia was “an act,” a choice she could willfully “control” if only she had the character and strength to do so.
Lisa’s nightmare continued into adulthood. After losing both her marriage and career and surviving several suicide attempts, she was severely over-medicated and subjected to phony hypnosis therapy in an eating disorders clinic, where doctors were certain that her anorexia stemmed from participation in a satanic cult. Failed by a negligent insurance “industry” that sanctioned this lunacy and by incompetent treatment “experts” who understood neither the complexities of anorexia nor humane ways to treat it, Lisa was in her mid-thirties before she began to receive clinically-proven therapies that helped manage her illness.
Flagrantly Anorexic is both a memoir and a call to action. It recounts in detail Lisa’s struggle with anorexia, but this book is also a demand for a new mental health system that treats eating disorders with effective, evidence-based treatments instead of hucksterism and witchcraft.
Every 62 minutes at least one person in the U.S. dies from an eating disorder. Nearly half of all Americans know someone with one. Anorexia is not a “condition” and absolutely not a choice—it’s a mental illness, a crisis that can’t be ignored.
After more than thirty years in hell, no longer embarrassed and ashamed by the hand she was dealt, Lisa Nasseff has found her voice. In this unforgettable book, she asks you to join in her cause—that those who suffer from eating disorders receive the treatment and compassion they deserve.