Empty - Susan Burton

Memoir

Rating: 7/10

Diet is a word that describes both a deviation from the norm and the norm itself. And for decades people have been cloaking their eating disorders in one aspect of this definition when in reality they connect with the other.

Memoirs stemming from these afflictions seem to have fallen out of vogue in recent years.  That said, I would hazard a guess that there is certainly no fewer people in the world that are struggling with one and this book pulls the issue forward, where it undeniably belongs.

At the heart of these disorders, like many others, is that those afflicted believe they aren’t worthy of love and have no control.  And that to earn it or achieve it they must go to extremes; starving, bingeing, vomiting. There is no reset button for the anguish human beings are capable of feeling, and measures this desperate to alleviate it can last a lifetime.  

This author doesn’t shy away from the fact that her issues are not entirely contained, and that recovery is a never-ending battle.

Footnote: One of the key influences in disordered eating is a sense of unrelenting shame the sufferer feels.  A word that implies one wants to stay hidden when in fact the physical effects of such disorders allow you to do anything but.