Eating, Drinking, Overthinking

A noted expert on women and depression offers a guide to balancing women's relationship to eating, alcohol, and overthinking
Based on extensive original research, "Eating, Drinking, Overthinking" is the first book to show women how they can navigate the often painful and destructive worlds of the title.
While it is widely known that women suffer from depression in disproportionately large numbers, what is less well known is the extent to which many women use food and alcohol to regulate their moods. Integrating the insights of her popular first book, Women Who Think Too Much, Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema has written a pathbreaking and highly readable account of the ways in which eating, drinking, and overthinking, can wreak havoc on women's emotional well-being, physical health, relationships, and careers.
As "Eating, Drinking, Overthinking" reveals, the coping strategies that lead women into the "toxic triangle" can be turned around to guide them out of it. Instead of letting negative thoughts gain the advantage, Nolen-Hoeksema provides exercises to help women manage their thoughts and maintain a balanced perspective. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Yale University. She has been conducting research on women's mental health for twenty years. She and her research have been profiled on the "Today" show, "USA Today," and in "The New York Times." The former director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan, Nolen-Hoeksema was awarded the Leadership Award and Early Career Award by the American Psychological Association and received an Excellence in Research Award from the University of Michigan. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and young son. What causes the vicious cycles of binge eating, drinking, and overthinking that troubles so many women? Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, whom "USA Today" calls "one of the nation's leading authorities on women and depression," examines how these three problems, each fairly commonplace in women's lives, can work together to seriously threaten their health and well-being. As Susan Nolen-Hoeksema revealed in her book "Women Who Think Too Much," women are especially prone to overthinking. Now, in "Eating," "Drinking," "Overthinking," she describes how women who begin by overthinking will often smother their negative feelings in food or drown them in alcohol: as many as 80 percent of the women who report suffering from one "arm" of this toxic triangle report suffering from one or both of the others. * 45 percent of women report that they are chronically on a diet, while 32 percent of college-age women say they binge-eat at least twice a month. * 1 in 5 adult women suffers from some form of alcohol abuse and over 12 percent engage in binge drinking. * 1 in 4 women will suffer a severe depressive episode at least once in her lifetime, while over 13 percent experience mild symptoms of depression. In her book, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema shows women how to harness their emotional and personal strengths to overcome the stress caused by a destructive relationship with food, alcohol, and overthinking. Readers learn how to transform their vulnerabilities into strengths, as well as how to establish new, realistic standards to live by and stay healthy. Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema goes even further, addressing the ways in which young women are particularly vulnerable to the toxic triangle, and explains how they can avoid it. "Eating," " Drinking," " Overthinking "will help women create effective, healthy strategies for living the life they deserve. "An astute analysis with useful recommendations for change."--"Psychology Today" " Nolen-Hoeksema] teaches mindfulness and meditation techniques that can help women get in touch with their true feelings and keep bad thoughts from snowballing."--"The New Haven Register" "I have witnessed the toxic triangle tear apart friends, but never had the name for it before reading this book. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema offers young women like myself new ways to understand their pain in clear, unpatronizing language. Most important, her book describes pragmatic tools to heal. As I was reading, I kept thinking of additional friends who would benefit from her wise and tested perspective."--Courtney E. Martin, author of the forthcoming "Perfect Girls," " Starving Daughters""" "A brilliant and eminently practical book that brings the best current research to bear on helping women get untangled from overly reflective thinking and the problems with eating, drinking and depression that go with it. By identifying 'the toxic triangle' connecting these disorders and discussing ways to address their root causes, Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema helps those who suffer tap into a wellspring of positive energy and ultimately cure those disorders whose common roots are too often overlooked by practitioners and patients alike."--William S. Pollack, PH.D., author of "Real Boys "and "Real Boys' Voices" "Nolen-Hoeksema presents a theory that women who battle eating disorders, alcohol abuse and depression are really suffering from a single disorder for which she has coined the term 'toxic triangle.' The author claims to be among the first to recognize this (most experts, she says, choose one as the cause of the other two) . . . The book's main strength is its excellent exploration of the impact of all three problems, individually and collectively, on women's lives. Eating disorders, alcohol abuse and depression affect women's relationships, careers, health and put them at risk for assault. Nolen-Hoeksema helps readers make sense of their past experiences and the genetic influences that can also make a difference, perhaps leading to a better understanding of their behavior."--"Publishers Weekly"