Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher

9 reviews

el_viral's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Although some elements have clearly been embellished - who remembers exactly their parents' relationship and how they felt at age 9, this must be extrapolated - overall it is a harrowing and moving account of an illness, and far beyond what one would necessarily expect from a 23-year-old. Hornbacher's writing is accomplished, and she very much draws you in to the narrative. As a person with mental health issues myself, although not an ED, I could see some of my own issues ref ecting back on me. As she herself said, there is no satisfactory ending, because there can't be for something like this, the end describing the balancing act needed while striving for a life is poignant. Overall a very good, if challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion

skaterhick25's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

This book gave me lots of mixed emotions. There are some MAJOR triggers in this and had I read this before I was recovering from my own mental health issues, I know it would of been used as a how-to guide. I appreciate the raw honesty in the book but it also felt a little like she was bragging at times. Still overall it was powerful and I remember feeling lots of these same emotions as a young adolesent/adult too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Sexual content

angenotes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, and Alcohol

rebeccaquinton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

joemkl's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

3.75

I really liked this. It's well written, and although sometimes the pacing feels off, it's a fantastic insight into Hornbacher's mind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

amandaquotidianbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

Hornbacher’s writing style absolutely made me love this book. She blends information about EDs,  her memories and literary references beautifully. It has strong dark academia vibes. I took my time reading it so I could luxuriate in the experience. I immediately picked up Madness, her other memoir. The only reason this isn’t a five star is the incredibly dark topic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

palladium_xerox's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

If you or someone you know are struggling with an eating disorder or addiction in general, give this memoir a read. It’s heart wrenching and incredibly real; the author doesn’t censor herself or try to justify her actions but instead just tells the audience about her life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Minor: Toxic friendship and Classism

tuesdayangel's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

Moderate: Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

valancysnaith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I will be brutally and totally honest. Much as I love this book, and much as the book is superbly written... it is a book that, in the depths of my own eating disorder, I have used to fuel the fire. In particular, I would read, over and over again, the account of Marya getting down to 52 lbs. And everyone on the ED online communities I frequented knew the exact BMI she was at that weight; I still remember, actually. And so many of us envied her. We knew the risks... we knew the health perils... yet we wanted, so badly, to achieve exactly what she had. To get down to a BMI of 10.2. It was amazing to us. We wanted it so, so badly.

I am in a better place, at least perspective-wise, these days, and I recognize that Marya was not someone to be envied, but an incredibly, direly ill person who was a hair's width away from death. I do not envy her weight or BMI, now. I've been down a similar road -- I've been emaciated, starving, in and out of hospitals -- and I know it isn't fun and games, and it will never give you what you want. 

But this book, for people with active EDs... it's extremely dangerous. Marya says she wrote this memoir with the intention of helping people with eating disorders, but for most of the people I knew who read it around the time I first did, it did not help their eating disorders to get better, but rather helped them to become worse. And it is true that this book is FULL of tips and tricks about purging and losing weight alike. I do not believe that people with active eating disorders should read this book, but of course no one can stop them. And it's very true that at the time of publication, there was no LiveJournal, no social media, none of the things that people now use to create eating disorder communities. So the effects of this book, although I imagine similar even then, were less wide-spread than they are today.

I don't blame Marya, though. Someone offered her a contract to write this specific book, and when you're given your first ever contract to write a novel, it's a very very difficult thing to turn down, especially as her finances were not very good at the time. And I do not think she believed it would do any harm. To any "sane" person, this book is horrific and terrifying. I know this. But to those of us who are stuck in the same disorders that she was stuck in (she has since fully recovered), it makes a lot of sense -- too much sense. And it makes the eating disorder voice even louder and even stronger.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Vomit