Better Is Not So Far Away (NTC SELF-HELP) - Softcover

Groman, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071840842 ISBN 13: 9780071840842

Publisher: McGrawHill Education, 2014

Synopsis

From hurting to healing . . . resistance torecovery . . . struggle to strength . . . This can be your story

When your parents, friends, or partner tell you what you should or should not do to "get better," do you think, "They just don't get it"?

Melissa Groman gets it. As a therapist, she has spent twenty-five years helping young women who binge, starve, and physically harm themselves to heal and recover. In Better Is Not So Far Away, she combines her experience, wisdom, and compassion to help you see beyond your behavior, discover who you really are, and decide to change your life.

You might know that obsession, disordered eating, and self-harm won't ultimately make you feel better--but you haven't been able to stop.

Bridging the gap between what you feel and what you do, Groman explores raw emotional pain with a deep knowledge of the human psyche, including stories of those who have suffered, faced, and conquered self-destructive urges. "A life well-lived means more than just a lessening of symptoms," Groman writes. "It means a true shift in how you think and how you tend to your own feelings and thefeelings of others."

Dealing with family, friendships, emotions, and life itself--as well as food and body issues--can be complex and can get in the way of even wanting to recover.

When you clear away some of the emotional obstacles, it's easier to take practical steps to genuine reliefand healing. This book will help you do just that. It can be the first or next right step toward facing yourgreatest hurts and challenges in a practical, profoundly honest, and self-caring way. A healthy, happy lifemay seem impossible now--but, truly, it is not so far away.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Curl up with this book and meet your new best friend, Melissa Groman. Sharing wisdom from both personal and professional experience, she will meet you exactly where you are on your journey to recover. Sometimes, you might even think that she is reading your mind! In Better is Not So Far Away, you will find understanding, connection, and most of all, unfailing hope."
- Jenni Schaefer, author of Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me

"This book is ideal for people who in their constant pain and anguish feel like they are the only person struggling with their specific problem. Filled with personal stories, the pages of this book will bring encouragement and hope to those who read it."

- Terry Sandbek, PhD, author of The Deadly Diet and The Worry Free Life

"As a modern analyst who has worked with many young women struggling with depression and eating disorders, it is delightful to come across a book that is clinically wise, readable, and comforting to the reader. Concrete suggestions for dealing with anger and frustration that often lead to maladaptive responses are examined with great sensitivity."

- Vicki Semel, PsyD, Executive Director, Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis

"Better is Not So Far Away is about overcoming the internal conflicts many people feel about even wanting to get better. Sometimes staying trapped in an eating disorder or in a state of self injury feels like the only way to cope with pain, abuse, or trauma. The numbing effect of bingeing, purging, or starving anesthetizes suffering and provides temporary comfort. Psychotherapist Melissa Groman captures the agony and the ecstasy inside the heart and soul of women with eating disorders in a way that is rich, vivid, and deeply poignant. She describes the wrenching hurt and anguish that lead people to binge, purge, starve, or cut themselves. She writes, "When you take every measure possible to distance yourself from your feelings and from your hunger and pain, you miss out not only on the experience of learning that you can survive, but the experience of finding out who you are." Only when patients learn to fully acknowledge the depth of their despair ─ as Ms. Groman experienced in her own life ─ are they ultimately led to a place of hope, recovery, and peace. The author identifies and describes in detail the six feelings that bring people to their knees: anger, fear, worthlessness, self-pity, loneliness, and grief. She teaches that recovery is a conscious choice to be made over and over again through self reflection, journal writing, cultivating patience, self compassion and spiritual awareness. Most importantly, Ms. Groman recommends, finding a safe support system ─ be it a friend, psychotherapist, or 12 step support group. "Some pain takes a billion words. But it has to come out of you or you will continue to starve or stuff your body," she encourages. "Telling your story is like walking through the door of life... By practicing 'feeling your feelings' you will develop a six-pack set of abs in your psyche." From "hurting to healing, resistance to recovery, struggle to strength," Ms. Groman has written a compelling and original book. I strongly recommend Better is Not So Far Away."

- Mary Anne Cohen, Director of The New York Center for Eating Disorders, author of French Toast for Breakfast: Declaring Peace with Emotional Eating and Lasagna for Lunch: Declaring Peace with Emotional Eating

About the Author:

Melissa Groman, LCSW, is a psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders, relationships, and healing emotional pain. She has twenty-five years of experience helping people live healthy, satisfying lives.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGrawHill Education
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0071840842
• ISBN 13: 9780071840842
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304