Exercise Addiction: When Fitness Becomes an Obsession (The Teen Health Library of Eating Disorder Prevention)

Focuses on exercise addiction and its relationship to eating disorders; explains how compulsive exercise can be harmful and how one can get help to deal with it.

Gr 6 Up-Taken together, these series entries form a comprehensive, yet nonthreatening look at eating disorders. Specifically written for teens in need of help, each book defines and describes bulimia, anorexia, compulsive eating, and compulsive exercise, and then goes on to consider one topic in some depth. The risks and causes are explored, as well as avenues of treatment and recovery. Symptoms are clearly outlined, as is what to say and what not to say to someone you suspect of suffering from an eating disorder. The roles of peer pressure, media images, family relationships, and genetics are included, as is how to deal with these influences. Although written by different authors, the books take a uniformly sympathetic tone, offering help and hope to teens caught in these dangerously addictive behaviors. Bright, full-color photographs enliven the pages, and the writing is clear and easy to understand. While the glossaries, indexes, and lists of resources and further reading enhance their value for reports, the actual purpose of these titles is to start those afflicted on the road to recovery. Of particular interest is the volume on support groups, which tells about different types of groups, what to expect when attending them, and how to start one. Each book is peppered with quotes and personal stories of teens who have "been there," presumably gleaned from interviews conducted by the authors, rendering the overall approach more like sharing than preaching.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village,

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