My Apologies to Men who Struggle with Childhood Trauma & Emotional Eating
I have a big apology to make to men. This is why:
I recently received an Amazon review for my book Healing Emotional Eating for Trauma Survivors. Overall the review is terrific and I appreciated this person’s thorough and thoughtful response to many aspects of my book. But one negative they mentioned was right on point. Quoting:
“This book is also exclusively targeted towards women. The author explains at the beginning that emotional eating can affect anyone, but that her experience is mostly with women, and that even though men can have similar issues, they’re less likely to seek help. Because of this, she focuses on women, feminine-coding all of her references to the reader and focusing on women’s stories. There are only two brief anecdotes in the entire book that are about men.
I think that this is a huge missed opportunity, especially because she herself acknowledges that men are less likely than woman to get help. And why would men reach out for help, when they not only have to overcome the stigma they feel, but also have to deal with basically every resource on the issue being specifically designed for women and barely even acknowledging them as an afterthought? Maybe men will be more likely to get help when books like this actually speak to them and tell their stories!”
This person is right and I appreciate what they wrote. I see myself as someone who is sensitive to inclusiveness and I have no explanation for why I didn’t include more examples of men. Big mistake on my part and I feel badly about it. If my book is reprinted, I will fix this.
In the meantime, if you’re a male who experienced childhood trauma and struggle with emotional eating, I am sorry. I do believe my book will help you and hope you will look through the examples and learn what applies to you too. Because, in the end, these are gender neutral issues.
