Good girls : a story and study of anorexia

Title:

Author:

Freeman, Hadley, author.

Personal Author:

Freeman, Hadley, author.

ISBN:

9781982189839

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

271 pages ; 24 cm

General Note:

"Originally published in Great Britain in 2023 by 4th Estate"--Title page verso.

Abstract:

In 1995, Hadley Freeman wrote in her "I just spent three years of my life in mental hospitals. So why am I crazier than I was before????" From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia nervosa. Her doctors informed her that her body was cannibalizing her muscles and heart for nutrition, but they could tell her little why she had it, what it felt like, what recovery looked like. For the next twenty years, Freeman lived as a "functioning anorexic," grappling with new forms of self-destructive behavior as the anorexia mutated and persisted. Good Girls is an honest and hopeful story of resilience that offers a message to the nearly 30 million Americans who suffer from eating Life can be enjoyed, rather than merely endured.

Personal Subject:

Freeman, Hadley-Health.

Subject Term:

Anorexia nervosa -- Patients -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Anorexia nervosa -- Treatment.

Mental health -- Patients -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Mental health -- Treatment.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

From Hadley Freeman, bestselling author of House of Glass , comes a "riveting" ( The New York Times ) memoir about her experience as an anorexic and her journey to recovery.

In 1995, Hadley Freeman wrote in her diary: "I just spent three years of my life in mental hospitals. So why am I crazier than I was before????"

From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia nervosa. Her doctors informed her that her body was cannibalizing her muscles and heart for nutrition, but they could tell her little else: why she had it, what it felt like, what recovery looked like. For the next twenty years, Freeman lived as a "functioning anorexic," grappling with new forms of self-destructive behavior as the anorexia mutated and persisted. Anorexia is one of the most widely discussed but least understood mental illnesses. Through "sharp storytelling, solid research and gentle humor" ( The Wall Street Journal ), Freeman delivers an incisive and bracing work that details her experiences with anorexia--the shame, fear, loneliness, and rage--and how she overcame it. She interviews doctors to learn how treatment for the illness has changed since she was hospitalized and what new discoveries have been made about the illness, including its connection to autism, OCD, and metabolic rate. She learns why the illness always begins during adolescence and how this reveals the difficulties for girls to come of age. Freeman tracks down the women with whom she was hospitalized and reports on how their recovery has progressed over decades.

Good Girls is an honest and hopeful story of resilience that offers a message to the nearly 30 million Americans who suffer from eating disorders: Life can be enjoyed, rather than merely endured.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Someone who fought the beast and won uses her own experience and thorough research to explain what anorexia is--and isn't. Longtime Guardian columnist Freeman, author of House of Glass, is a talented writer and researcher whose personal history with anorexia as a young woman required numerous hospitalizations. She remembers her trigger moment with absolute clarity. It was just after her 14th birthday when a classmate with very skinny legs said, "I wish I was normal like you." Having reconnected with several women she met in hospitals along the way, she pulls in their experiences, as well, explaining that "anorexia was a bomb inside us, just waiting for the right time, the single flame, the trigger." The author's thorough explanation of the disease and its treatment completely debunks many myths--e.g., "all that was needed to cure anorexia was for Kate Moss to eat some chips." A chapter called "The Theories" is a simultaneously hilarious and horrifying three-page poem that lays out "an incomplete list of reasons doctors, therapists and outsiders have given over the years for why I became anorexic." Freeman is sharp, funny, and literate. In discussing her school reading during that transitional 14th summer, she writes, "I don't blame John Fowles for my anorexia, but he did make an effective soundtrack for it." She also labels Roald Dahl "the Anna Wintour of children's literature when it comes to fatphobia" and shares crucial life wisdom from Spaceballs and Lethal Weapon. With several sources indicating an "epidemic of extreme anxiety among girls"--a 2019 study showed rates of self-harm had tripled since 2000--Freeman's insights are essential. For mothers of daughters in crisis, she offers a wise message: "Get professional help as soon as you can, and don't become her caregiver." If you need to understand anorexia, look no further. This is the book for you. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.