UKC

Has anyone else read Unraveled, a memoir by Katie Brown?

Finished it in one sitting last night and was horrified at the level of unhappiness and abuse she suffered as a child and young woman at the hands of a deeply controlling mother and a seemingly invisible father.  How could she appear on competition podiums and visit medics and nobody notice she was starving?  

It was not a pleasant read.  I hope she finds some peace with herself.

I haven't read the book, but it seemed obvious at the time that either she had some kind of eating disorder or she had a feakish body type and metabolism. Wasn't our place to speculate at the time, of course, but I'm not in the least surprised to hear that it wasn't the latter.

Alerted by your post I ordered the book and read it this afternoon. Incredibly raw and unflinching. The mother appears to be mentally and physically abusive, controlling and narcissistic. Despite being a born again evangelical, she was happy to smuggle Katie's competition winnings into the USA to avoid tax and avoided paying her competition entry fee. 

Katie's prolonged struggle with disordered eating is mind blowing to those of us who haven't seen it first hand in others.

As a slightly wry aside it was interesting that she seemed to feel so little emotion at winning so many competitions but was overjoyed to flash her first 5.14 and onsight Half Dome NWF free.

The fact that several medical professionals didn't pick up on her issues (e.g she didn't even menstruate until she was 18) is scandalous.

Thankfully she appears to have reached some sort of peace and equilibrium despite being scarred for life. A recommended if harrowing read.