Paige Gordon
Searching for Full: How GLP-1s Changed My Eating-Disordered Life
Writer, advocate, and author of Searching for Full
Santa Cruz, CA
BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: January 12, 2027
Genre: Memoir/Self-Help/Eating Disorders
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 256
Format/13-digit ISBN/Price: Paperback / 979-8896364344 / $18.99 Ebook / TBA/ $12.99
ADDITIONAL CONTENT
ABOUT THE BOOK
After years of failed treatment for her bulimia, Paige Gordon took a GLP-1 medication. She didn’t lose weight. She lost her compulsions.
Paige binged for the first time when she was 11 and for years afterward, didn’t look back. It wasn’t that overeating made her feel better; she was simply ravenous. All the time. As she got older, that feeling of constant hunger didn’t go away, but the feeling that accompanied it—shame—grew stronger. So she developed a new habit to go with the bingeing: purging. And once she started, nothing could make her stop, not therapy, Prozac, various inpatient programs, nor any other traditional treatment. And certainly not the love of the many men—good, flawed, or violent—she met along the way.
Part confessional memoir and part exploration of the science surrounding GLP-1s and disordered eating, Searching for Full: How GLP-1s Changed My Eating Disordered Life is a wry, no-holds-barred account of a life shaped by bingeing and purging—until GLP-1s changed everything. It’s a story of a life shaped by bulimia; a girl with negligent and eventually absentee parents; of the love she tried to find elsewhere; of seeking control and finding only pain. But one day, 30 years into living with her disorder, Paige heard a podcast about GLP-1s and how they could turn off the “food noise” in your head. And that’s when her journey truly began. As an advocate and activist, Paige is sharing her personal experience in the hopes of changing the system and broadening research into underlying causes and innovative treatments for eating disorders.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paige Gordon, recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal, is a writer, advocate, and women’s commissioner whose work lives at the intersection of writing and systemic disruption. Drawing on her lived experience with bulimia, her passion is championing large-scale, biologically informed studies that reframe eating disorders as neurobiological conditions rather than moral failures.
Paige serves on the board of directors of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and on multiple lived-experience advisory groups supporting research studies, grant initiatives, and patient-centered advocacy efforts. She also serves on her local Women’s Commission, where she advocates for healthcare equity and gender-informed policy reform. Paige lives in Central California with her partner, two children, and a codependent Saint Berdoodle named Marble.
TIMELY TIE-INS
September
- National Women’s Health and Fitness Day – 30
October
- National Book Month
- World Mental Health Day – 10
- Evaluate Your Life Day – 19
November
- National Life Writing Month
December
- National Women Support Women Day – 1
January
- New Year, New You
- International Quality of Life Month
- Self-Love Month
- I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore Day – 7
- Book Publication Date – 12
- Women’s Healthy Weight Day – 15
- International We Are Not Broken Day – 17
February
- Eating Disorder Awareness Month
- National Eating Disorder Awareness Week
March
- National Nutrition Month
- Women’s Month
PRAISE
“Fearless, incisive, and deeply moving. With remarkable candor, she invites readers into the lived reality of eating disorders: the private negotiations, the contradictions, the quiet suffering that so often remains unseen. Her writing is both intellectually sharp and profoundly human, illuminating the complex terrain of recovery with honesty and courage. This is the kind of book that helps people feel seen, understood, and less alone, and that alone makes it invaluable.”
—Yvonne Castañeda, LICSW, author of Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety
“Paige Gordon’’s writing is a vulnerable and valiant invitation to sit with her on the cold tile as she pleads to a porcelain confessional for hope and healing. As a reader who once feared the insecurity and instability of my own bulimia, this memoir was a mirror that helped me see my hunger in a way I never have. Searching for Full is daring and sometimes devastating, but just as Paige brought us down to the floor beside her, she also holds our hand as we stand up — together.”
—Bridey Thelen-Heidel, author of Bright Eyes
“Writing with crisp prose and a propulsive pace, Paige takes us through her 22-year battle with bulimia. Gordon’s writing is raw and honest and although she doesn’t shy away from the darkness, she illuminates her suffering without painting herself as a victim. As the bulimia fades and the chatter silences, she finds her voice. A voice she uses as a call to action to pursue research and expand treatment for those still suffering with bulimia. This book will resonate with anyone who has struggled with the constant chatter of any addiction.”
—Andrea Leeb, USA Today best-selling author of Such A Pretty Picture
“A heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful story of trauma and addiction packed with sardonic, insightful humor and clever use of similes. One hopes that Gordon’s groundbreaking personal discovery and advocacy will add to the growing body of research about the potential use of GLP drugs for addiction and binge eating disorders. An important and timely read.”
—Wendy B. Correa, author of My Pretty Baby
“It’s a privilege to peer into Paige’s life, memories she shares authentically and with some levity. She shows us the ways trauma and an eating disorder can warp the biggest parts of our lives, the determination that patients and loved ones currently need to find better solutions and care, and how our health care and medical research systems need to evolve so that eating disorders can be fully understood and met with effective and compassionate care.”
—Jessica Scheer, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association
SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- What made you decide to write this memoir?
- Your recovery story involves GLP-1 medication, which has become incredibly controversial. Why did you decide to speak publicly about it?
- You describe your eating disorder as feeling “biological” long before you had language for it. What do you mean by that?
- How did growing up with your parents abandoning you shape your relationship with food, shame, and survival?
- What surprised you most once you entered the eating disorder advocacy and research world?
- You’ve spoken openly about the tension between biological and sociocultural explanations for eating disorders. Why do you think those conversations become so polarized?
- Your memoir discusses “food noise.” How would you describe that experience to someone who has never experienced it?
- What has been the response from people with lived experience since you began speaking publicly?
- Why do you believe eating disorder research is so underfunded compared to other psychiatric and medical conditions?
- You now serve on the Board of Directors for NEDA and advise on lived-experience research initiatives. How has that work changed your perspective?
- What do you wish clinicians better understood about bulimia?
- You often say curiosity is missing from this conversation. What do you mean by that?
- What role do you think storytelling plays in changing medicine or public perception?
- Was there a moment during recovery when you realized your life might actually become bigger than your illness?
- What do you hope readers take away from your book?
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Memoir / Christian Inspirational
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1647429003
Price: $15.99