Gambling Addiction Resources and Answers from She Bets Her Life

Do you think you might have a gambling addiction…or do you fear that someone close to you might have one? Visit the new website for She Bets Her Life, Mary Sojourner’s hard-hitting confessional memoir about her journey to the bottom and back up again as a gambling addict. Once you’re on the site, check out the Q&A section, where Sojourner offers firsthand advice for people whose lives are being negatively affected by gambling. And, if you have questions of your own for her, you can email her at shebetsherlife@gmail.com; your (anonymous) question—and her answer—will appear on the site, not only providing you with the feedback you’re looking for, but also giving others in your situation the opportunity to benefit from the information.

In addition to the She Bets Her Life website, visit its page on Facebook for updates from Sojourner and the Seal Press team, as well as links to current articles and information relevant to gambling addiction.

Yes Means Yes listed on the 2010 Amelia Bloomer List!

We received some exciting news today! The members of the Amelia Bloomer Project are pleased to announce that Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape is a part of the 2010 Amelia Bloomer List. The members found this work to be an exemplary title.

Congratulations to Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti, and all the contributors!

For more information about the Amelia Bloomer Project, please visit their blog.

Laura S. Scott, author of Two is Enough, on Today show

Tomorrow morning Laura S. Scott, author of Two is Enough: A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice, will be on the Today show discussing how, and why couples across the country are choosing not to have children. Thought-provoking and informative, Laura S. Scott tackles the ins and outs of the motivations and reasoning behind a couple's choice to have children in her book Two is Enough. Tune in to NBC to see her talking about this intriguing subject, and check out her blog at The Childless by Choice Project.

Our complicated relationships...with food

A few days ago, the New York Times published a piece called Narrowing an Eating Disorder, by author Abby Ellin, of Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight and How Parents Can (and Can’t) Help (PublicAffairs). The article sheds light on "the nation's most common eating disorder[:]" Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, which has become a type of catch all for eating disordered behavior that doesn't fit neatly into the diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia. Many with EDNOS, as it's known, appear to be a healthy weight, which can cause people/ doctors/ insurance companies to claim that they aren't sick enough for treatment or help. But sadly, "[a] study in the Oct. 15 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry reported that the mortality rate associated with Ednos exceeded that for anorexia nervosa and bulimia."

Nicole Johns, author of Purge: Rehab Diaries, published last spring, is a young woman who braved telling her own story of being diagnosed with EDNOS and subsequently going into an in-patient treatment facility for help. Johns has received a tremendous amount of praise for her memoir and her book continues to do well, perhaps because so many people are able to identify with her story and the diagnosis, which is finally being realized, taken seriously, and discussed in public.

I wanted to bring both the NY Times article and Nicole's memoir to light today, because when checking out two popular MTV shows this past week, I watched two beautiful young women, Snooki on Jersey Shore, then Callie on the Real World DC, describe their struggles with unhealthy body image and their pasts which included and may still include unhealthy/ eating disordered behavior. It's the prevalence of it that is so shocking and the fact that their stories are sadly so similar to so many. Hopefully the dialogue continues.

For more information, resources, and support if you or someone you know may be suffering from an eating disorder, head to the National Eating Disorders Association.