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Product Description
Product Description
With a Girl Interrupted feel, this memoir is beautifully crafted and will appeal to many readers who enjoy the 'misery-memoir' genre. In this engaging, raw memoir, Nicole Johns documents her battle with an eating disorder. Focusing primarily on her three months in a treatment facility, Johns translates her experience directly to the page. Her prose is lucid, and she seamlessly switches tenses and moves through time as she unearths several important themes: body image and sexuality, sexual abuse and relationships, and the struggle to piece together one's path in life.While other books dealing with this theme may sugar coat the harsh realities of living with an eating disorder, "Purge" does not hold back. Johns' presents an honest, detailed account of her experience with treatment, avoiding the happily-ever-after while still offering hope to the millions struggling with these devastating disorders. "Purge" sends a message to those who are fighting an uphill battle with an eating disorder: though the road may be rough, ultimately there is hope.
About the Author
Nicole Johns received her BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in Gender Studies from PSU-Erie. Her eating disorder worsened in college, as she strove to succeed academically, in activism and writing. Shortly after starting an MFA program, Nicole entered treatment for her eating disorder. The year after treatment, she won the Eda Kriseova fellowship to the Prague Summer Program. Currently, Nicole is taking prerequisites for entrance into a Clinical Psychology PhD program so that she can become a therapist and help others recover from addictions and achieve their life goals.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MUST-READ for anyone living with, caring about/for or treating someone w/ an eating disorder.,
By Chynna "Chynna" (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Purge: Rehab Diaries (Paperback)
"I like the physical release of purging. I don't know how to deal with feelings, and I don't want to deal with feelings." ~ PURGE page 245Man, can I ever relate to these words. I've had very few books make such a huge impression on me that part of me is changed in some way once I close the covers. Nicole's is one of those books. If you are someone living with an eating disorder, love someone living with one or just want to understand this condition better, this is definitely a book you need. But be aware: Nicole tells you like it is. No fooling around. No jargon. No flowering things up. No sunshine up your shorts. And that's exactly how society needs to learn about this potentially deadly disorder. Nicole had me from her powerful Prologue. In those few pages not only did she define eating disorders from the perspective of someone going through it, she raised awareness about the fact that not all of us who suffer with them fit neatly in to a nice little category of 'Anorexia', 'Bulemia' or 'Over Eater'. You can have an eating disorder when you are a 'normal' weight. You can have an eating disorder and not have the food be the underlying cause for the disorder. You can have an eating disorder no matter your race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, body size or anything else. And it's about time someone is brave enough to enlighten the world on these points. There are 61 chapters in PURGE. Each chapter is only a few pages long, focusing on one important part of being in rehabilitation for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). Nicole talks about everything in a blunt, shoot-from-the-hip manner but in a voice where we feel she's sitting right with us telling the story. I honestly feel this story can't be told in any other way. She starts her journey just before she checks into the eating disorder facility. Believe me when I tell you we see the importance of this step and I applauded her for being brave enough to do it! We are taken through her initial admission to her 'weigh in' to the rules of the facility to her feelings about her roomies and more. Nothing is off-topic or 'taboo'. The most powerful part of her journey to recovery is seeing how even when she understands the physical consequences for purging (eg: heart issues, digestive issues, etc.) she still feels a longing for that release. It's so much better than dealing with the underlying issue causing the urge to purge. I've been there. I won't ruin it by sharing too much but Nicole is inspirational as she shows us that simply throwing food in front of a person with a serious eating issue and yelling at her (or him) to eat will NOT help things. In fact, that will only deepen the issue. We need to help these people get in touch with the root of what's causing their disorder whether it's anger, resentment, lack of control, abuse, or dysfunctional home life...we need to help them heal THOSE issues before the eating can be helped. Nicole shows us that in every chapter. (Her Epilogue focusing on her slowly getting better on her own while a close friend from the facility spirals even deeper into an eating disorder is one of the most important sections of this book.) I was moved to tears many times in this book. Not just because of Nicole's emotionally-charged, raw writing style but also because I related at a very personal level to this book. I also lived with an eating disorder--for many years. One thing that saved me was my loving Godmother, and my awesome Uncle and Aunt, who helped me work through my issues from being raised in a dyfunctional family. The other was getting pregnant with Jaimie. From the moment I saw two bars in that test window, I never purged again. Nicole also had an inspiring experience that finally got her to stop too. But not every sufferer is as fortunate as we were. PLEASE...read this book. Share it with every professional, therapist, library or doctor. If you have a daughter, son, mother, aunt, best friend, lover or other loved one you suspect (or know) is living with an eating disorder, don't ignore the signs. Get them help. NOW!!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews) 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inside EDNOS: A Courageous Account of a Size 9 Woman's Eating Disorder Treatment,
By Rachel Kramer Bussel "Cupcakes Take the Cake ... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Purge: Rehab Diaries (Paperback)
Purge chronicles Nicole Johns' memoir of her time in a eating disorders rehab center in Wisconsin for 88 days in 2004, when she was 23 years old, for EDNOS, a term meaning Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The writing is stark, interspersed with clinical documents like her intake documents, guidelines from the clinic, and the $24,500 bill for her treatment ($15,500 was covered by her insurance).While anyone who's read any other first-person accounts of eating disorders, or lived with one, will find much that's familiar here--stuffing one's feelings with food, trauma, body dismoprhia--there are several things different about Johns' story. She isn't a stick-thin anorexic, but rather a woman who's a size 9, who struggles with being at the upper end of the weight scale in the clinic. Yet by constantly purging (making herself vomit), she's wound up in the hospital and suffers from heart problems and had a concussion, along with other medical issues that will be with her for a long time, if not forever. She's also bisexual, though that isn't presented as a factor in her diagnosis; in fact, it's treated, refreshingly, as a nonissue, and seems to be a given to Johns. When she writes things like, "My body has lost its integrity," it's something many, many women can relate to. Yet this is not a self-help book or one with a moral lesson per se. Johns is not holding herself up as an example, and in fact alludes to the danger of doing so when she writes that Marya Hornbacher's memoir Wasted is considered an "eating disorder bible" to many women suffering from eating disorders, and was banned from the treatment facility she attended. Sometimes the point of view here is challenging, and I wished she had given us a little bit more of a glimpse of her current life, to see whether the back-and-forth nature of her attitude toward her eating disorder, which is omnipresent in the text presented, still holds. Yet Johns keeps her focus firmly on her time in treatment, with occasional hints of her growth in the years since. There are humorous moments, such as when one resident asks about the vibrator policy of the center (the therapist doesn't think they're allowed) and going skating with the elderly. There's repetition here that while probably deliberate, at times makes for tepid reading, but does mimic what surely was the repetitious days involved in her treatment. Johns is at her best when telling the stories that are likely the most difficult for her; not the details of how and when and what she purged, but her feelings about and experiences with her family, and the possible date rape from her college advisor. These are told in a stark, direct way that serves to highlight these stories. Purge is not an easy book, but an important one that will speak to those who've suffered eating disorders, known people who do or simply want to know more. The closing scene is a tearjerker, and highlights one of the biggest takeaways for me of Purge: the lasting, often life-threatening physical damage that can be done by bulimia. The medical reports that are included here certainly don't have the passion of her writing, but they can be just as chilling. Johns is open about how she didn't think she was doing that badly because she wasn't scrawny, and that is a reminder that one's outside appearance doesn't tell the entire story. 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshing memoir,
By Jersey-Tree-Huggin'-Hippie "free hugs available!" - Published on Amazon.com
Purge: Rehab Diaries is not your run-of-the-mill memoir of someone struggling with an eating disorder ... it offers a refreshing account of a young women struggling with EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), which is often overlooked. It gives the outsider a detailed and honest look at what it's like to be suffering from EDNOS and then put into treatment. The memoir gives samples of documents from the treatment center she was in, including her perspective of things ... which often were much different than what was written about her. The book is graphic without being triggering (as many memoirs on this subject are) and truly gives anyone, one suffering from an eating disorder or a loved one, a good glimpse of life inside a treatment center. It is a perfect read for someone who feels like they are "not bad enough" to get help or wants to know exactly what it's like to get help. Definitely a refreshing first-hand account of the illness ... an easy read that you can't put down!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally...,
By CreativeMN83 "CreativeMN83" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Purge: Rehab Diaries (Paperback)
I stumbled upon this book accidentally and it was just what I needed. I have had trouble in the past finding books on EDNOS, or any eating disorder related book that I can fully relate to. I loved how honest and straightforward Nicole Johns was about her experience in treatment. I enjoyed reading about her life after treatment, and really felt like she said things that I wish I could say. The feelings I often have, Johns is able to put words to and give those with EDNOS a voice. I highly recommend this book.
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