How Can You Eat That?

Lily Johns began life as a confident, happy child but in her teenage years started to suffer from lack of self-esteem and confidence. This spiralled into anorexia and depression that held her captive from her teenage years to her early 40s. She was never able to speak to anyone who had recovered from anorexia because the system never gave her the opportunity. She therefore never believed that recovery was possible.

This harrowing but ultimately uplifting book charts her descent into a world of distorted and delusional thinking, years of well-meaning treatment that did little to get to the root of the problem, and the turning-point that put hope back on the agenda. Lily, who describes herself as being in remission from the illness, tells her story with unflinching honesty. When she found it hard to communicate because of the barrage of negative thoughts, she began to draw: the results allowed outsiders a glimpse of what she was going through, and many of them are reproduced in this book.

This is the ideal book for parents, siblings, friends, partners, carers or nurses who want a better understanding of the anorexic mind, as well as offering hope to fellow sufferers.