Comments from clinicians and experts in the field...
Your Book of Hope reminds us of how important it is to define what you will accept and what you will not, cautions us with regard to treatment fatigue and helps us realize that laughter needs to be part of therapy. I was particularly struck by how your understanding of anorexia wasn’t truly realized until your fears and anxieties around your own battle with cancer helped you appreciate how to support someone’s recovery as opposed to taking it over. Your book is filled with valuable lessons and helps us all move forward with renewed strength.
I would recommend this book not only for those who have had to suffer but also for primary care givers and the interdisciplinary teams who are involved with the treatment process. You have given the reader a chance to experience the emotional intensity that surfaces as we deal with this debilitating illness.
This educational “documentary” leaves us with many healthy coping strategies that we need to help us through this most challenging journey.
Truly, a Book of Hope.
Dr. Robbie Campbell, MD, FRCPC
Physician Lead, Adult Eating Disorders Clinic, London Health Sciences Centre
Professor Emeritus, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University
President and Founder, Eating Disorders Foundation of Canada
I would recommend this book not only for those who have had to suffer but also for primary care givers and the interdisciplinary teams who are involved with the treatment process. You have given the reader a chance to experience the emotional intensity that surfaces as we deal with this debilitating illness.
This educational “documentary” leaves us with many healthy coping strategies that we need to help us through this most challenging journey.
Truly, a Book of Hope.
Dr. Robbie Campbell, MD, FRCPC
Physician Lead, Adult Eating Disorders Clinic, London Health Sciences Centre
Professor Emeritus, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University
President and Founder, Eating Disorders Foundation of Canada
We had a lovely meeting in March with Sue Huff from Edmonton, Canada who donated a copy of her book, Book of Hope, to EDASA’s library. We had planned on reviewing Sue’s book for our website and newsletter but ever since it has been in our library it has been out on loan! It has been borrowed by parents and people experiencing an eating disorder and everyone has taken so much from it. The review will have to wait!
- Kate Parsons, Eating Disorders Association of South Australia (EDASA), Adelaide, SA
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As a clinician who works with clients struggling with an eating disorder and their families, I found this book to be an incredibly valuable and helpful resource. Book of Hope provides true insight to anyone working with or supporting someone with an eating disorder. It also provides a sense of hope and understanding for someone with an eating disorder, elements that are significant to recovery. - Sara Kreklewich, Disordered Eating Consultant, Alberta Health Services Book of Hope walks gently but bravely into the core of families coping with eating disorders to bring to the light the chaos, pain, strength and hope of their stories. This resource has taught me much about the patients I have worked with in the Eating Disorders Unit and the ways this disease affects not only them, but their families and communities as well. - Bev Ross, certified therapeutic harp practitioner/staff musician with the Friends of University Hospital's Artists on the Wards program |
From parents...
Sue's book was recommended by one of my friends, whose daughter was struggling with an eating disorder. Anorexia wasn't something new to me; I had struggled myself as a teen and young adult for many years. Reading Book of Hope helped me understand how difficult living with someone with an eating disorder is. I knew it wasn't easy on my parents, my mom especially, but I don't think I quite understood how hard it was for them and how it affected everyone in the house, including my brothers. I think if Book of Hope had been around 20 years ago, it would have helped my parents cope and reassure them that there was help available and that I would, eventually, get better. Sue's book should be required reading for families struggling with an eating disorder. - Amanda, teacher
How many emotions is it possible to experience? I think I visited them all at one time or another while reading Book of Hope. Sometimes I felt very sad, reading the stories of patients and their families struggling with this debilitating disease. I also felt hopeful my daughter will find a way to cope, co-exist, or defeat her eating disorder. I felt so much empathy because parts of the participant's stories are my story as well. This feeling of being connected to others, whom I have never met, was really great. It made me feel not quite so alone.... like an isolated iceberg, floating lost out to an unknown, uncharted sea.
Book of Hope is riveting, raw, honest, inspiring, educational, powerful and hopeful. Everyone studying to be a doctor should be required to read this book. Counselors, parents, patients in recovery, or people moving towards an eating disorder would really benefit from reading it too.
-Heather, parent of a child with an eating disorder
As the mother of a teenage daughter, I am so grateful to have such a positive resource. The interview format of the book provides numerous perspectives and makes it readable and moving. Sue's approach was a perfect balance of information and individual experiences. It seems inappropriate to say I enjoyed reading about such a serious medical condition but I did enjoy this book - thank you to the people who shared their stories and to Sue for framing them in this excellent work!
-Joscelyn Baker, lawyer, Vancouver
-Joscelyn Baker, lawyer, Vancouver
I am genuinely happy to recommend this book to others and have already done so. The book was highly valuable to me as a "newbie" to the eating disorder world. The parents in the book became my virtual support group - I was instantly comforted knowing others have climbed this mountain before me and survived the trek.
On the other hand, reading the perspective of the young people who battled these eating disorders was critical for me to grasp how my own daughter was both thinking and feeling. I needed the wisdom of both the parents and the young people to learn how I could successfully support my daughter.
I passed the book onto my friends who were trying to understand what we were going through. The education it gave them was invaluable. The more people that are curious to make sense of this disorder, the more tolerant a society we will become.
-Toby Barron., parent
On the other hand, reading the perspective of the young people who battled these eating disorders was critical for me to grasp how my own daughter was both thinking and feeling. I needed the wisdom of both the parents and the young people to learn how I could successfully support my daughter.
I passed the book onto my friends who were trying to understand what we were going through. The education it gave them was invaluable. The more people that are curious to make sense of this disorder, the more tolerant a society we will become.
-Toby Barron., parent
I knew next to nothing about eating disorders, so what struck me most about the book was just how traumatic and disruptive living with an eating disorder is. I had no idea how helpless and sad a parent or supporter would become when trying to cope and help a person with a disorder. I'd encourage bystanders to realize that it's serious business.
-Andrew Wilson, author of Life with Old Man
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