Table of Contents
Andreas Voice describes the pain of this illness more poignantly and accurately than any other writing on this subject. Thanks to Doris Smeltzers courageous examination of her daughters illness and death, Andrea may empower many others struggling with eating disorders to live.
Margo Maine, PhD, psychologist and author of Father Hunger
Doris Smeltzer loved her daughter and left no stone unturned in caring for her. Her courageous and indomitable spirit and her capacity to tell a compelling story keep Andrea alive in readers hearts and minds.
Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP, author of When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder
Andreas Voice is the compelling story of one familys coping with the tragedy of bulimia. Not easy to put down, this is the deeply personal story of Smeltzers journey through shock and grief. Andreas own voice comes through poignantly, hopefully, in her poetry and journal entries.
Frances M. Berg, MS, author of Underage and Overweight
I have such respect for your honesty and heart, and for Andreas Your book will be a light for many young women and their families.
Annie Lamott, author and activist
This heartbreaking yet deeply impactful story will move readers to initiate change about how eating disorders are viewed in our country.
Emme, supermodel and womens issues activist
Andreas Voice tells the story of the tragic potentials of eating disorders through two powerful voicesAndrea, the daughter, and Doris, the mother. The end result is a deep understanding of the complexities of eating disorders and new compassion for those who suffer with them.
Carole Nor mandi, MS, MFCC, and Laurelee Roark, MA, CCHT, coauthors of Its Not About Food and Over It
This book tells it all, told by a mother who has been there herself and who has dedicated her life to altering others of the dangers of eating disorders. If you have a teenaged daughter, you especially need to read this book. If youre female and a teenager, this book could save your life.
Hal Z. Bennett, author of Write From the Heart
Andreas voice, as we hear it through her journal entries and poetry, resonates vibrantly within this heartbreaking, beautifully-written memoir of her mothers grief. Her life and premature death are emblematic of the enormous tragedies wrought by eating disorders.
Kate Dillon, former supermodel, current plus size model
For Andrea Lynn Smeltzer
with much gratitude and forever love
Foreword
I have lived and breathed in the world of eating disorders for most of my life. Starting at the age of fifteen and lasting into my twentieth year, I suffered from anorexia nervosa. Now as I approach my fifty-second birthday, I am filled with the experience, knowledge and wisdom that twenty-eight years of treating eating disorder sufferers and their families has given me. I have seen the devastation and horror that an eating disorder wreaks on individuals and whole families. I have also witnessed the healing and soul growth that can occur.
Family members are often the unseen, untreated, unaccounted for victims in the eating disorder war. And, in the last five years, the number of books devoted specifically to family members or to professionals who educate and treat family members has increased significantly. I, along with three colleagues, did a review of eleven books of this nature in the JulySeptember 2005 issue of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. I was struck not only by the plethora of new information being published but also that the advice was tremendously varied, and in some cases, even contradictory.
One book said to monitor food intake and weigh your eating disordered child, while others said to leave this to professionals. Some books discussed not buying special foods while others suggested that if the person with the eating disorder would eat, then one should not fight over what foods she chose. There were suggestions for confronting purging behavior or locking up food, and there were suggestions that none of this would do any good. And there were several kinds of treatment options, but no real offers for what would workfor sure.
There are also many books written by family members who have experienced a son or daughters eating disorder. In her book, Eating With Your Anorexic, Laura Collins wrote how she and her husband successfully treated her daughter at home following a new, promising but controversial, treatment known as the Maudsley Method. In Slim To None, Gordon Hendricks writes of his daughters drawn-out, horrific and ultimately unsuccessful battle with an eating disorder and his anguish throughout. I have read so many of these books and seen so many television specials on eating disorders that I cringe at the thought of reading yet another. But no book has touched me as much as Doris Smeltzers Andreas Voice.
Andreas Voice is not just another sordid tale or sobering look at the devastation of eating disorders. Through the reflections of Doris and the actual words of Andrea, taken from her letters, poetry and journals, the book reveals a tale of how good things can go so wronga tale which I believe may help save others. Parents will recognize themselves and their daughters in this story. Andrea should not have died, but her death and the subsequent writing of this book may very likely prevent others from suffering her fate.
Without blame or judgment, Doris seeks to find cause and responsibility to heal not just herself from the loss of her daughter, but society in general from the loss of something much greater. Bravely and honestly, Doris looks at her own contribution to the myriad of factors contributing to Andreas bulimia, and in revealing this, will help others to do the same. Furthermore, she speaks to the contribution our current cultural climate plays in the development of eating disorders in a way that calls for introspection, growth and action. As Andreas father and Doriss husband, Tom, says, An eating disorder is a powerful teacher. Not only has Doris Smeltzer learned her lessons from this teacher, in writing Andreas Voice she has gone on to become a powerful teacher herself.
Carolyn Costin, MA, MFT
Director of the Monte Nido Treatment Center and
Founder of the Eating Disorder Center of California
Author of The Eating Disorder Sourcebook and
Your Dieting Daughter
Introduction
My daughter Andrea was not alone in her struggle with an eating disorder. In the United States, as many as ten million females and one million males are fighting a life-and-death battle with...anorexia or bulimia. Approximately twenty-five million more are struggling with binge eating disorder.
I wrote this book for those millions who deal with this illness every day, and for their loved ones and caregivers. Like the presentations my husband and I give on the subject of disordered eating, this book is a tribute to our daughter Andrea, who struggled with bulimia for a little over a year. Ultimately, that condition would take her life, but along the way were many powerful lessons that today help others heal.
Our familys experience taught me that a sufferers loved ones and caregivers can hold the lifelines toward recovery. Each of us must do our own internal work and discover what our relationship is to the disease. When all of usMom, Dad, siblings, friends and caregivers know these inner processes, we are much better able to be genuinely helpful and better able to cope with our own emotions throughout. I have chosen to share my inner processes, knowing that the most challenging part of this disease, for all involved, is internal.
