In the Labyrinth of Binge Eating

Food soothed an ache she couldn’t name, a pain she couldn’t describe. In this memoir with a mission, Dr. Hilda Lee shares the story of her unhealthy relationship with food, and offers strategies for recovery to others lost in the same maze in which she wandered for so many years. Hilda was a powerful professional woman seemingly in complete control of her destiny—but she harbored a shameful secret: she was a compulsive, out-of-control binge eater. She secretly consumed massive amounts of food, sometimes unable to stop until she fell into a deep, almost coma-like sleep. Filled with shame and self-loathing, she fruitlessly sought a solution to her compulsive eating problem in diet plans and weight-loss books, thinking she simply needed to find the right diet and exert stronger will-power. Tragically, each diet led her deeper into the darkness and shame of binge eating. Then everything changed. In 1998, at over 300 pounds, Hilda was diagnosed with an eating disorder more common than anorexia and bulimia combined, affecting more than eight million Americans: BINGE EATING DISORDER. Confronting this diagnosis, she started on a journey toward healing and health. She sold her beloved dental practice and returned to graduate school in search of a deeper understanding of the causes and possible solutions to this destructive pattern of eating. Hilda’s healing and transformation allowed her to shed emotional burdens far heavier than the weight she once carried. Now, her deepest desire is that her book, In the Labyrinth of Binge Eating, will serve as a guide to help others who suffer as she did.