Sickened
The unforgettable, must-read true story and Sunday Times bestseller
-
- CHF 14.00
-
- CHF 14.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
The raw and honest true story of a lost childhood, the million-copy Sunday Times bestseller.
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'An appalling, fascinating story, expertly told' Sunday Times
'A true story of survival and achievement against the odds' Sunday Telegraph
A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor's examining table, missing yet another day of school. Barely twelve, she's tall, skinny, and weak. It's four o'clock, and she hasn't been allowed to eat anything all day.
Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to 'get to the bottom of this.' She checks her teeth for lipstick and, as the doctor enters, shoots the girl a warning glance. This child will not ruin her plans...
From early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother's mind: Munchausen by Proxy, the world's most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse.
Sickened is her story.
Praise for Sickened:
'Extraordinary - shocking and moving' Woman & Home
'Horrifying but compelling' Cosmopolitan
‘This searing and beautiful memoir represents a genuine triumph of the human spirit’ Marc D. Feldman, M.D.
'Gripping right from the start and I struggled to put it down' ***** Reader review
'A brilliant read' ***** Reader review
'Beautifully written' ***** Reader review
'Unputdownable' ***** Reader review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first of its kind, this compelling memoir recounts the story of a childhood affected by Munchausen by proxy disease, a.k.a. MBP, a psychological disorder in which caretakers, usually themselves the victims of traumatic abuse,"make an otherwise healthy child sick" as a way of gaining attention and approval. Set in towns of rural obscurity, Gregory's memoir movingly describes how, as a"sick" child, she believed that her constant feelings of exhaustion and lethargy were caused by some illness in herself rather than by her mother's complicated and abusive rituals. When her mother feeds her handfuls of pills, withholds food or instructs her to"act sick," Gregory does as she is told because she wants to please her. Then, undernourished and doped up on drugs for problems that don't exist, Gregory is dragged from hospital to hospital in search of"answers." Interspersed throughout Gregory's narrative are real medical records that show the efforts of dozens of doctors, procedures and surgeries to"heal" her, efforts which instead become the source of new illnesses. Not until adulthood, when she hears a professor describe MPB during a lecture, does Gregory realize what the real problem is. Gregory's impressive and disturbing memoir uncovers the truths of this elusive and disturbing form of child abuse that is often overlooked and misdiagnosed. 22 pages of b&w white photos.
