Held in the Dark: Finding Light and Hope While Supporting Your Teen Through an Eating Disorder

I didn't know what I was looking at. I only knew something was terribly wrong.

When your daughter disappears in front of you - slowly and quietly - you enter a kind of darkness no one prepares you for. It's a darkness full of fear, helplessness, and a love so fierce it has nowhere to go.

Held in the Dark is our story of what happened when we walked into that darkness and what we found on the other side.

This book is for every parent sitting in a waiting room they never expected to be in, wondering if their family will survive this. It's for every daughter who needs to know her story isn't over. We made it through. Not perfectly. Not without scars. But we made it - and each chapter shares reflections on how we made it through one season at a time.

You don't have to find your way alone.

Jennifer Longenecker helps parents of adolescents struggling with eating disorders overcome isolation so they can move from overwhelmed to equipped. She knows this season firsthand as she and her daughter, Heather, lived it together. A Jesus follower, wife of 29 years, and proud mom of five, she holds a degree in Scripture and Theology from LeTourneau University and is a Certified Mental Health Coach. Mostly, she's just a mom who has been exactly where you are.

Heather Elizabeth has been on both sides of this story. As someone who walked through her own eating disorder recovery, she knows what it feels like from the inside. Funny, warm, and quick-witted, Heather works as a medical assistant at a psychiatric hospital and unwinds with watercolor painting and her very full house of pets.