When Darkness Doesn't Win

Vanessa Vega walks us through her own shadows to redemption. Photo courtesy Amacom Books.

Really--what does it take to overcome the constant pull of an eating disorder? How do you do it when it may not even be your most pressing problem?

Vanessa Vega, author of Comes the Darkness, Comes the Light: A Memoir of Cutting, Healing and Hope, has moved through a brutal cycle of self-harm (via cutting) and anorexia nervosa to a place in which she has learned to see herself as a human being.

But the book is important not only in describing a story of recovery. Vega tells us what went on in individual therapy sessions and group therapy sessions--the questions and thoughts that began to challenge the darkest parts of herself, putting her face-to-face with her own beauty and competence. To be invited into her struggle is an honor of which we can all take advantage.

• Read the book review
• Why cutting is attractive to someone with an eating disorder
• More book and film reviews on eating disorders