Review: "Belly" by Emily J. Johnson

Belly by Emily J. Johnson
Published 2023
★★★

A memoir of food and family and struggling with both. I don't have a ton to say here, but I appreciate that Johnson opted to focus more on binge eating than on anorexia, the latter of which is far more commonly discussed in memoirs. It sounds like when Johnson was a teen, her mother instinctively helped her through that restriction with a finesse that even now, even, with updated research, can be hard to come by—but when she started struggling with bingeing rather than restricting, shame became much more of a factor. There's also a good sense of just how much plays into mental illness; it's not just one thing but a thousand things all bouncing off each other.

What I would have liked to see: Johnston describes her eventual recovery as nearly instantaneous, which is fascinating but surprising to me, and I would have liked more detail there. (Among other things: Is this peer-reviewed? Is it being replicated anywhere? Or was she just fortunate to stumble upon the right unscientific method for herself at the time?) Still, an interesting addition to the genre.