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Bones: Anorexia, OCD, and Me
Bones is a candid account of life with crippling anorexia and OCD and survival against all odds. This true story explores the complex interaction between nature and nurture that leads to Jen’s talent for self-destruction.
The all-consuming obsessions that surface in Jen’s early childhood make anorexia seem like an escape from the torture of constant compulsions. Anorexia’s seduction leads to a dark freefall into an underworld of bingeing and purging, end-stage starvation, bankruptcy, and career implosion.
Bones follows Jen into the abyss, where anorexia no longer keeps the compulsions at bay but instead fuels them, turning her into a neurotic young woman held hostage by her now-entrenched diseases.
Bones is a story of suffering and survival, but devoid of self-pity and attenuated with a dry sense of humor. It is an uncensored account of the gritty and sometimes repulsive aspects of mental illness that get less exposure than the more socially acceptable symptoms. Anyone who wants to read a survivor story, has a loved one struggling with mental illness, or seeks to avoid the pitfalls themselves will find Bones a delicious read.
The all-consuming obsessions that surface in Jen’s early childhood make anorexia seem like an escape from the torture of constant compulsions. Anorexia’s seduction leads to a dark freefall into an underworld of bingeing and purging, end-stage starvation, bankruptcy, and career implosion.
Bones follows Jen into the abyss, where anorexia no longer keeps the compulsions at bay but instead fuels them, turning her into a neurotic young woman held hostage by her now-entrenched diseases.
Bones is a story of suffering and survival, but devoid of self-pity and attenuated with a dry sense of humor. It is an uncensored account of the gritty and sometimes repulsive aspects of mental illness that get less exposure than the more socially acceptable symptoms. Anyone who wants to read a survivor story, has a loved one struggling with mental illness, or seeks to avoid the pitfalls themselves will find Bones a delicious read.
281 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 27, 2022
262 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
April 9, 2024
I do not recommend this book to people with anorexia or OCD. It described potentially triggering behaviours in detail and never really advised the reader on how to avoid it, which was what I was looking for. A dark snapshot into a lost mind that seemed to exist only for shock value (the writing, that is. I don't deny that her problems were and are very real). I genuinely don't know why she wrote it, as everyone who it would seem aimed at are probably the worse for reading this book. I don't like giving bad reviews on things, but this is not a book I should reread and probably not one I should have read in the first place.
March 3, 2023
Oof. This was hard to read. Not because of the writing, as it was very well written, but because of the content. I was so depressed reading this book, it absolutely dragged my mood down. I went in expecting maybe around 60 or 70% that the author would turn things around and get better, but there’s really only the barest glimmer of hope at the very end. I’m not sure I would recommend reading this unless you’re in a good place mentally. I really hope that this author is able to continue to turn things around and then writes a follow up at some point that can focus more on the recovery process and offer some hope. To be clear — 5 stars for the writing and honesty, but just docking a star for making me so depressed, which is probably not fair but it is what it is.
May 11, 2024
I was thinking about this book today, and how I have never felt so incredibly seen before reading it. I cried so many times reading this book because it made me feel so much less alone. Specifically the ways she wrote about her OCD, both how it manifested in her childhood and throughout her struggles with anorexia. Wonderfully written and incredibly honest.
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over a year after reading this book I decided to bump my rating from 4 stars to 5. this book is one that I think about all the time, and I will always be thankful for finding a book that made me feel seen when I felt so invisible, when I felt like my issues were so one-of-a-kind. not only is the writing beautiful but as I said in my original review above, this book is just so incredibly honest.
I think this book could definitely be triggering, but for me I found it very comforting & validating. it's not the book for everyone, but it's definitely the book for me.
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over a year after reading this book I decided to bump my rating from 4 stars to 5. this book is one that I think about all the time, and I will always be thankful for finding a book that made me feel seen when I felt so invisible, when I felt like my issues were so one-of-a-kind. not only is the writing beautiful but as I said in my original review above, this book is just so incredibly honest.
I think this book could definitely be triggering, but for me I found it very comforting & validating. it's not the book for everyone, but it's definitely the book for me.
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April 25, 2024rtc.. but overall rating: DNF!! first dnf of 2024, sadly.
August 21, 2023
***Hardcore trigger warning for this book if you are early in your ED recovery or are generally triggered by graphic ED descriptions***
This book was very well written, gripping, heartbreaking, and extremely dark. There’s not much recovery in the story and the ending left me googling the author to see if she is OK today. I hope she is and that she’s found some serenity and recovery. I was rooting for her so hard throughout the book, and I could literally feel myself sagging every time she relapsed. This is truly a brilliant depiction of the insanity of addiction and eating disorders.
This book was very well written, gripping, heartbreaking, and extremely dark. There’s not much recovery in the story and the ending left me googling the author to see if she is OK today. I hope she is and that she’s found some serenity and recovery. I was rooting for her so hard throughout the book, and I could literally feel myself sagging every time she relapsed. This is truly a brilliant depiction of the insanity of addiction and eating disorders.
January 17, 2025
This book was, all at once, completely engrossing and nearly impossible to get through. While Jen herself notes that this is not a self-help book in any way, that warning doesn’t come until the very end. It is a fantastic read, and can be incredible helpful, BUT I do NOT believe this book is for anyone who has not fully committed to recovering from their eating disorder. Especially during the first half of the book, there were many moments when Jen‘s struggles, warped thoughts, and compulsions beckoned my own out of the dark. But as I pushed through and followed her journey down the rabbit hole, the ugly reality of what an eating disorder can do, to not only the person struggling, but to everyone around them, terrified me to my core. It opened my eyes beyond anything I could have fathomed. It reminded me why we need to put in the daily work to recover. Jen says it best: “There’s no glamor in starvation and there’s no wisdom at the bottom.”
July 24, 2023
I struggled with this one…it took me a year to finish it and I’m a fast reader. Very repetitive to the point that I thought I was rereading the same chapters by accident. Not a good book to read if you’re trying to recover.
April 8, 2024
This was probably the hardest book to read that I have ever read. It was a great book it wasn't bad at all. It was just so hard to read about her addiction and struggles of her OCD and anorexia. It definitely was a bareall, she didn't hold back anything type memoir. I truly recommend.
June 23, 2023
Very repetitive book. I felt like this was a worry journal for her OCD and she kept ruminating over and over about her spine. Uses triggering details such as numbers.
July 7, 2024
"Bones: Anorexia, OCD, and Me" is a memoir written by Jen Dixon. In it she tells her story of nearly 20 years of battling mental illness. She describes how she went from being an impressionable 12 year old who was told she was "getting a little chubby" to an adult in her 20's that is terrified to keep food in her stomach. At her worst, she was binging on over 20,000 calories a day. She admits no one can eat that much in one day which is why she regularly purged her stomach of the food soon after she ate it. Her weight dropped to 73 pounds. She lost her friends, refused to go visit her mom and dad in person, settling instead for a weekly phone call. She couldn't understand why she was doing what she was doing, she just knew it had to be done. She knew it could kill her; in fact, she fully expected to die. She meticulously scrubbed her apartment every day so when her body was found it wouldn't be found living in a pig stye. Only with the intense help of her therapist, a level of help I have never heard of in the mental health world, was she able to turn a corner. She still won't say she's cured, even though she gas gained 20 pounds. At the slightest slip, she knows she will fall back into her former world.
This book was engaging, maybe more so because I live in a similar world. Food is also my enemy. Not all my behaviors mirror Jen's, but the struggle is real all the same. While I found the book to be well written and highly engaging, I also found myself starting to take hints as to how to continue to live as an anorexic. In other words, for many people this book could be a dangerous trigger. If you find yourself in a world similar to Jen's, take caution before you decide to read this book. I think if I had done more research on it, I probably would have chosen to skip it.
This book was engaging, maybe more so because I live in a similar world. Food is also my enemy. Not all my behaviors mirror Jen's, but the struggle is real all the same. While I found the book to be well written and highly engaging, I also found myself starting to take hints as to how to continue to live as an anorexic. In other words, for many people this book could be a dangerous trigger. If you find yourself in a world similar to Jen's, take caution before you decide to read this book. I think if I had done more research on it, I probably would have chosen to skip it.
August 2, 2024
How did she keep a diary consistently enough to write this? Because it's really detailed and it goes on for years. Years when she told herself the same lie every day--I will stick to the eating plan this time--and failed, every single day. Her anorexia morphed to bulimia (binging and purging) early and it surprises me that she calls it anorexia in the title. I always make the distinction between "starving yourself to death by eating very little" and "starving yourself to death by puking up everything you eat." And after the first few years, she clearly had the latter.
Pretty wow as in amazing. Although if you want to read this book, I'd suggest you read the first one-third and then skip to the last two chapters. Because almost everything in between is the same old misery on rinse-and-repeat cycle. I'm not saying it was repetitive or boring, but don't waste your time hoping for a magical moment. Recovery just happens and I don't think she knew exactly why. Having a badass therapist helped.
Fyi, I didn't find it triggering at all. So it's safe to read if you're prone to eating disorders yourself.
Pretty wow as in amazing. Although if you want to read this book, I'd suggest you read the first one-third and then skip to the last two chapters. Because almost everything in between is the same old misery on rinse-and-repeat cycle. I'm not saying it was repetitive or boring, but don't waste your time hoping for a magical moment. Recovery just happens and I don't think she knew exactly why. Having a badass therapist helped.
Fyi, I didn't find it triggering at all. So it's safe to read if you're prone to eating disorders yourself.
May 28, 2024
I specifically intended not to read this whole book. I was just going to read the one chapter that reminded my sister of my recent ex, and then stop.
That chapter was spot on! And I recognize some of his other behaviors in Jen’s eating disorder, too. (Ex. Having to “earn” food by exercising) I’ve been appalled at how much crap I put up with from him, and how non-alarming it seemed when I was in it. I want to learn everything I can to avoid doing that again. This chapter was a vivid picture.
But then, somehow I just couldn’t stop reading the rest. I even went back around to the chapters before “I don’t fuck with you” after I finished (mainly to see what was up with the business about the munchkins).
This book was really eye-opening to how what it’s like to be in the grips of OCD and an eating disorder reinforcing each other. Damn! It really blew my mind. Yet, unlike many books, I didn’t really feel like I was inside the experience, thank God. I just felt like I was reading a very sad story.
I hope the author is ok. I tried to look her up and see, but I didn’t find anything.
That chapter was spot on! And I recognize some of his other behaviors in Jen’s eating disorder, too. (Ex. Having to “earn” food by exercising) I’ve been appalled at how much crap I put up with from him, and how non-alarming it seemed when I was in it. I want to learn everything I can to avoid doing that again. This chapter was a vivid picture.
But then, somehow I just couldn’t stop reading the rest. I even went back around to the chapters before “I don’t fuck with you” after I finished (mainly to see what was up with the business about the munchkins).
This book was really eye-opening to how what it’s like to be in the grips of OCD and an eating disorder reinforcing each other. Damn! It really blew my mind. Yet, unlike many books, I didn’t really feel like I was inside the experience, thank God. I just felt like I was reading a very sad story.
I hope the author is ok. I tried to look her up and see, but I didn’t find anything.
October 29, 2022
Another really hard read.
Yes, anorexia is the worse and while I do have an eating disorder, I am starting to thank the universe that its not bulimia or anorexia.
What makes this very honest story so compelling is that the author has a combination of eating disorders and OCD. I have never really thought of people who suffer from a combo of eating disorders, but Dixon certainly qualified for that.
I always get so stressed out when I read memoirs involving anorexia and bulimia as it always feels to me that the person just does not want to recover and in fact, finds huge validation in staying sick. This completely baffles me as recovery is the ONLY thing I could think about and have worked very hard towards it.
Still, this book is sad, honest and you end up really hoping that Dixon finally slays her demons.
Yes, anorexia is the worse and while I do have an eating disorder, I am starting to thank the universe that its not bulimia or anorexia.
What makes this very honest story so compelling is that the author has a combination of eating disorders and OCD. I have never really thought of people who suffer from a combo of eating disorders, but Dixon certainly qualified for that.
I always get so stressed out when I read memoirs involving anorexia and bulimia as it always feels to me that the person just does not want to recover and in fact, finds huge validation in staying sick. This completely baffles me as recovery is the ONLY thing I could think about and have worked very hard towards it.
Still, this book is sad, honest and you end up really hoping that Dixon finally slays her demons.
November 28, 2025
CONTAINS SPOILERS
I appreciated this book for its honesty. It’s well-written and captures the correlation between OCD, anorexia, and bulimia perfectly.
As a mental health professional, I felt a better diagnosis for the character would have been bulimia, as the author frequently details purging-very detailed purging.
I appreciated the ending-it was realistic. Too many people read a memoir about a dark topic expect a happy and hopeful ending. In my opinion, many memoirs detail progress in mental illness as linear. In this case, it is anything but.
I would really love a follow up to this author’s story.
That being said, if you are suffering from and ED or OCD, or are deeply affected by those factors, DO NOT READ THIS. It is graphic and detailed, at times triggering. (That’s saying a lot for me; I don’t normally react to books on that scale).
I appreciated this book for its honesty. It’s well-written and captures the correlation between OCD, anorexia, and bulimia perfectly.
As a mental health professional, I felt a better diagnosis for the character would have been bulimia, as the author frequently details purging-very detailed purging.
I appreciated the ending-it was realistic. Too many people read a memoir about a dark topic expect a happy and hopeful ending. In my opinion, many memoirs detail progress in mental illness as linear. In this case, it is anything but.
I would really love a follow up to this author’s story.
That being said, if you are suffering from and ED or OCD, or are deeply affected by those factors, DO NOT READ THIS. It is graphic and detailed, at times triggering. (That’s saying a lot for me; I don’t normally react to books on that scale).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2023
I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The second half was super repetitive (so many stories of binging and purging over and over and over again). And while I understand that eating disorders are repetitive like this, I didn't need to read over 100 pages about binging and purging. It's also definitely not recovery focused. It's just an ode to how sick she was, complete with numbers of calories eaten, numbers of miles run, amount of food purged, and her exact weight.
May 7, 2024
3.6. Rounded up for the review.
This book felt like a real experience while reading it for the most part. It was written definitely by somebody who has some experience with eating disorders.
A few of my favorite quotes were:
- "I float on denial and dopamine."
- Recovery isn’t about wanting it badly enough; it’s about making a new decision each and every day to do the work."
- "There’s no glamor in starvation and there’s no wisdom at the bottom."
This book felt like a real experience while reading it for the most part. It was written definitely by somebody who has some experience with eating disorders.
A few of my favorite quotes were:
- "I float on denial and dopamine."
- Recovery isn’t about wanting it badly enough; it’s about making a new decision each and every day to do the work."
- "There’s no glamor in starvation and there’s no wisdom at the bottom."
June 13, 2022
Lively but sad look at life with chronic anorexia—one of those books where you can see that the writer has more insight than the narrator is able to apply to daily life. It ends up being both humourous and grim. There's too much detail to recommend to anyone who would be better off avoiding numbers, but it's very clear that Dixon is going for as unflinching a portrait of an experience as possible, for stripping away any misconstrued glamour.
August 22, 2024
Unflinchingly honest, humorous at times, a bit disturbing and definitely potentially triggering. This was a pretty tough read. It was incredibly relatable to me in some sad ways, though in far less extremes, and it also left me jarred and unsettled in many other ways. I sincerely hope the author is able to continue to forge and reinforce her rocky road to recovery— she deserves a shot at a life.
February 17, 2025
Wow. Just wow. This book is heavy and deep but so impactful. Really pulls the reader in to reflect and think about such heavy and not talked about enough topics. So important and meaningful to read a first hand account. Definitely could see how this could be triggering for anyone with an ED or OCD though
January 6, 2026
I am just not sure what the point of the book is because it doesn’t really take us through her recovery journey or sound like she recovered. It was mostly detailing repetitive cycles of her illness without a redemption arc which can be dangerous to those reading that can relate and are looking for hope.
October 31, 2022
Wow!
What a roller coaster ride! I was routing for Jen the whole way. I didn't think she was going to finish the story towards the end. I'm so happy that she is here and well. Gods blessing on her!
What a roller coaster ride! I was routing for Jen the whole way. I didn't think she was going to finish the story towards the end. I'm so happy that she is here and well. Gods blessing on her!
January 1, 2023
The last chapter made me sad, ngl. In all fairness, after quite some time of acknowledging an ED the actual desire to be impossibly thin and sick fades inevitably, but when raised by anorexia you’re all too inveterate to recover. It gets worse before it gets better, but it is always worth it.
July 5, 2023
Not an Easy Read
Wow. This was rough and I had to put it down a few times and clear my head. What a strong person Jen is. I could barely read this and she lived it. Scary, gripping, ugly, raw, powerful.
I too hope you help someone else Jen.
Wow. This was rough and I had to put it down a few times and clear my head. What a strong person Jen is. I could barely read this and she lived it. Scary, gripping, ugly, raw, powerful.
I too hope you help someone else Jen.
July 3, 2024
Very hard read especially if you have ocd or/and anorexia.It took me so long to read it just because it triggered me to the point where I felt invalid.But it was very very raw and real.I just can’t recommend it to someone in early states of recovery
July 12, 2025
Enlightening
Before this book there was so much I didn't know about anorexia and bulimia. It is brutally honest
and that's good so young people understand how destructive this illness is.
Before this book there was so much I didn't know about anorexia and bulimia. It is brutally honest
and that's good so young people understand how destructive this illness is.
August 23, 2025
Terribly Sad, Terribly Real
My sister passed way this year and I wish I had read this before that. Jen’s memoir provided so much insight into the mind that struggles.
Beautiful written.
My sister passed way this year and I wish I had read this before that. Jen’s memoir provided so much insight into the mind that struggles.
Beautiful written.
December 17, 2025
This book is really accurate in what it’s like to have OCD and anorexia. The book was so repetitive because that’s how ocd thoughts are. Living in this authors mind was draining so I truly cannot imagine living her life:(
March 4, 2023
I miss the comfort of my Ed but I don’t want this to be my future. This book hit hard in some spots I could’ve written it myself
March 6, 2023
Very well written, very hard to read. Highly recommend a few palette cleansers to read simultaneously
March 23, 2023
The first part really got me but towards the end it turned a bit more repetitive
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews