Precociously intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and ambitious, Marya Hornbacher grew up in a comfortable middle-class American home. At the age of 5, she returned home from ballet class one day, put on an enormous sweater, curled up on her bed, and cried because she thought she was fat. By age 9, she was secretly bulimic, throwing up at home after school, while watching Brady Bunch reruns on television and munching Fritos. She added anorexia to her repertoire a few years later and took great pride in her ability to starve. Marya's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a wire news service in Washington D.C., she is in the grip of a bout of anorexia so horrifying that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to 52 pounds and counting, Marya becomes a battlefield: her powerful death instinct at war with the will to live. Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and slip into a netherworld where up is down, food is greed, and death is honor? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Marya Hornbacher sustained both anorexia and bulimia through 5 lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs, and ultimately, any sense of what it means to be "normal." In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she recreates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family, and cultural causes underlying eating disorders.

Mila, noch keine dreißig, ist unendlich müde und traurig. Der Job frisst sie auf und der Sinn ihres Daseins ist ihr aus dem Blick geraten. Mit Depression und Burnout wird sie in eine psychosomatische Klinik eingewiesen - und niemand, der an einen solchen Ort kommt, ist normal, oder? Aber wie verrückt ist Mila eigentlich? Und wie kann man unter solchen Umständen überhaupt den Weg zurück ins Leben finden? Die gekonnt weibliche Selbstironie und die scharfe Beobachtungsgabe der Autorin lässt den Hörer bedauern, wenn er sich der achten Woche und somit dem Ende des Hörbuchs nähert.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives.Her father is away on business. Her stepmother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way - thin, thinner, thinnest - maybe she'll disappear altogether.

Ein "Wenn sie zurückkommt, bin ich dünn." Diesen Entschluss fasst Christian Frommert, als seine damalige Angebetete sich für ein Jahr nach Australien verabschiedet. Es ist einer der Schlüsselmomente in seinem Leben. Ehemals übergewichtig, gleitet er immer tiefer hinab in den Zwang, dünn zu sein.

An honest and compelling memoir, Girl in Need of a Tourniquet is Merri Lisa Johnson’s account of her borderline personality disorder and how it has affected her life and relationships. Johnson describes the feeling of "bleeding out" unable to tell where she stopped and where her partner began. A self-confessed "psycho girlfriend," she was influenced by many emotional factors from her past. She recalls her path through a dysfunctional, destructive relationship, while recounting the experiences that brought her to her breaking point.