Self Help · Hardback

Anorectic

Norwegian title: Anorektisk

Ingeborg Senneset

An honest, unflinching and unsentimental account of the illness from the inside.How does a patient with anorexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder experience psychiatry? What kind of battles are fought inside a person that wants to end an illness that since childhood has acted as a lifeline and the same time been a lethal threat? What does it take to let go? How much does weight really matter? Through admissions to three different psychiatric facilities for a total of three years, Ingeborg Senneset documented the slow task of regaining control over her own life. Through meetings with the best and the worst sides of health care, paradoxes and conflicts both on an interpersonal and private level, we get the whole story. Anorectic is an honest, ruthless and unsentimental depiction of the inside of the illness and the hospitals by an author that has the unique combination of being a patient, journalist and nurse. "It is not a matter of writing less about eating disorders, as some people has suggested, but simply about writing better. The hard topics should be brought into the light, with all it´s complexity. Writing better means staying away from idealising and romanticising eating disorders, and rather bring out the dry, boring and dangerous facts in a precise way and using a clear language. This book i guaranteed to be free of romanticising."Finn Skårderud, Psychiatrist, professor and writer.

"Heartbreakingly insightful, mercilessly self-exposing and brilliantly written about suffering from anorexia. (...) All together a useful book in the treatment of all sorts of compulsive disorders. Ingeborg Senneset is ruthlessly self biographical. Some parts are tragically funny, others will make you cry blood. Every word teaches us something. " Six stars out of six! ADRESSEAVISA "Ingeborg Sennesets dark howl from hell has despite all the pain and anxiety become a documentary that work like a guiding light for all those others. (...) Relatives, therapists and anyone who has ever wondered how this sickness is experienced. Anyone with the slightest fragment of empathy in them should read this book, to understand more about mental illness."AFTENPOSTEN"A merciless, unpleasant and intense story. Ingeborg Senneset writes in a way that makes us want to read. And hopefully there is something to learn."MEDIER24.NO