Anorexia and Beauty. Melinda Hutchings

Anorexia is a serious and life-threatening condition that touches many more lives that statistics ever show.  Through the first of these two books Melinda shines an insightful light into the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of the anorexic mind thanks to the fictional character Tracy Middleton.  As I read through the book I was struck by the fineness of that tightrope that separates the average self-conscious teenager and the child with an eating disorder.  Like most of my friends I went through fazes of doing obsessive amounts of exercise, of only eating fruit after breakfast, of gorging on a whole packet of biscuits before running around the block to burn it off, of hopping onto the scales at least 6 times a day, of not wanting to go out on a ‘fat day’.  For me these occasions were mearly punctuation market in one of  life’s sentences but for some this IS life.

Getting Food Into Perspective

I still remember that I weighed 9 stone 10 pounds on a good day and ten stone one on a bad day.

The second book gives the reader a chance to read other peoples experiences as it journeys through the features and rituals of the anorexic mind. Exploring and explaining them in a straightforward and honest way, breaking down the illness so that readers can identify some of the many ‘setting criteria’s’  required to catalyse this mindset and then walking through the symptoms and explaining their relevance and value to the sufferer.

As an onlooker it can be tempting to try to show the friend with an eating disorder the error of their ways by demonstrating that YOU are the one that is overweight not them.

Tempting to ridicule their choice of food or their lack of enthusiasm for the family meal.

Easy to become frustrated by the slowness of the recovery of the frequency of relapses.

Hard to love the person that you once knew to be kind, carefree and energetic but is now depressed, angry and distant.

I am sure that these books would be comforting to anyone suffering from eating disorders as it is difficult to solve a problem that a) you don’t know exists and b) is complicated and confusing.  I found these on Amazon but I am sure that your local bookshop could also help! Don’t suffer in silence, stay beautiful.

Melinda Hutchinson's Books

Like most of you I have witnessed the tragedy, the pain and the suffering that this and illnesses like this bring both for the sufferer and their family and friends.  If you feel the need to talk to someone about your situation you may find Melinda’s website  Body Cage a comfort.  That fear of loosing control can be frightening but having a friend to help hold your hand can make all of the difference.  Melinda is a beautiful person and I’m sure she would be delighted to meet you.  For more information about Melinda you can also look her up on the following website: www.melindahutchings.com