Saving Sara - by Sara Somers (Paperback)

About the Book

Sara Somers can't stop eating or bingeing. She is drowning in shame and self-hatred and wants more than anything to be loved, thin, and normal, yet she alienates her family and others by refusing help--until she embraces the path to recovery, and eventually arrives at acceptance.

Book Synopsis

For nearly fifty years, Sara Somers suffered from untreated food addiction. In this brutally honest and intimate memoir, Somers offers readers an inside view of a food addict's mind, showcasing her experiences of obsessive cravings, compulsivity, and powerlessness regarding food. Saving Sara chronicles Somers's addiction from childhood to adulthood, beginning with abnormal eating as a nine-year-old. As her addiction progresses in young adulthood, she becomes isolated, masking her shame and self-hatred with drugs and alcohol. Time and again, she rationalizes why this time will be different, only to have her physical cravings lead to ever-worse binges, to see her promises of doing things differently next time broken, and to experience the amnesia that she--like every addict--experiences when her obsession sets in again. Even after Somers is introduced to the solution that will eventually end up saving her, the strength of her addiction won't allow her to accept her disease. Twenty-six more years pass until she finally crawls on hands and knees back to that solution, and learns to live life on life's terms. A raw account of Somers's decades-long journey, Saving Sara underscores the challenges faced by food addicts of any age--and the hope that exists for them all.

Review Quotes

"This is a riveting and deeply human memoir about one woman's crazily disordered eating, and the path to freedom she discovered. But it is also the story of Sara Somers's fight to save her soul, spirit and life."
--Anne Lamott, New York Times best-selling author and past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship

"Read Saving Sara to see how bad it can get before it gets great--and find out just how [Sara Somers] did, so you can do it too."
--Judy Collins, New York Times best-selling author of Cravings, Grammy-nominated singer, and Academy Award-nominated director

" . . . a compelling memoir that really dives deeply into the realm of addiction."
--Readers Favorite

"Saving Sara is a mental anguish page turner, depicting the relentless drive to eat that can dominate and destroy life's opportunities, just like any other addiction . . . ideal reading for someone who is struggling with compulsive eating or who is suffering with complications from obesity. It is essential reading for someone working in the addiction field. A critical book for anyone who really wants to walk in the shoes of a food addict, who lives in the disease, and finally finds her recovery."
--Dr. Vera Tarman, MD, FCFP, ABAM, medical specialist in food addiction, author of Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction

"When it comes to eating disorders, both professionals and the public have a great deal of understanding of anorexia and bulimia. There is very little understanding, however, of Binge Eating Disorder. In this wrenching book, Sara describes in detail--sometimes painful detail--what her disease of food addiction was like and the depths to which it took her. But this is also a volume about hope. Her journey to finding her solution is only one person's story, but as we know from the long history of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs, one person telling their story can transform lives. I hope that mental health providers will read this, learn from it, and share it with those who might benefit from knowing they're not alone with their eating behaviors."
--Dr. Kristi Webb, PsyD, Licensed Psychologist, Raleigh, North Carolina

"Your commitment to living life fully rather than being one of the walking wounded is very clear. You let the reader see the strengths and the support of the women and men in 12 Step recovery: a new freedom, and a new happiness . . . one meal at a time."
--Father Tom Weston, Oakland, California

About the Author

Sara Somers suffered from food addiction from age nine to age fifty-eight; she has been in food recovery since 2005. In a double life of sorts, Somers worked as a licensed psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty-four years. After finding recovery, Somers moved to Paris, France, where she currently lives. She writes a blog called Out My Window: My Life in Paris. When she's not writing, Somers volunteers at the American Library in Paris, enjoys the cinema, reads prolifically, and follows her favorite baseball team, the Oakland Athletics. Most important, Somers devotes time each day to getting the word out about food addiction and helping other food addicts. Saving Sara is her first book.