BOOKMONGER
Memoir focuses on
overcoming anxiety
‘Cured’ is by Seattle doctor
Seattle physician and researcher Dr.
Anne McTiernan’s fi rst memoir, “Starved,”
was published in late 2016. The book
focused on how she experienced neglect
and abuse in her childhood, which led fi rst
to dangerous malnourishment, then to obe-
sity, followed by obsessive dieting — and
fi nally to a career as a nutrition doctor.
McTiernan is back with a second mem-
oir. “Cured” covers some of the same ter-
ritory of the fi rst book, particularly with
regard to her dysfunctional childhood. But
this time McTiernan focuses less on coming
into a healthy relationship with her physical
body and more on the work she has had to
do to achieve mental health.
Whether it was in spite of, or motivated
by, the lack of nurturing she received as a
youngster, McTiernan has been driven by
ambition for a long time.
“Cured” begins when, as a young mother
herself, she earns a doctorate in epidemi-
ology. But just a few years later, she con-
cludes that opportunities for women in her
fi eld are hard to come by. (Among other
things, this book off ers a telling fl ashback
to the limitations women faced in the late
20th century.)
She decides to go back to school to
become a medical doctor. This means
uprooting her husband from his job and her
two young daughters from their customary
routines to move from Seattle to New York
for med school.
McTiernan describes her feelings of
insuffi ciency and isolation as she juggles
Celebrate! July 4, 2021
This week’s
book
‘Cured’ by
Anne McTiernan
Central Recovery Press
— 298 pages — $18.95
motherhood and fam-
ily life with the tough
demands of medical
training. And as the only
mother among her fel-
low students, it’s diffi cult
to participate in whatever
social life they lead outside
of school.
Within a few months of
beginning classes, McTier-
nan is suff ering debilitating
panic attacks. Her husband,
grappling with his own set of
challenges in a new job and
new community, while look-
ing after their daughters so
she can study, is not always
emotionally available to her.
“I felt like I was facing a behemoth on
my own, with no one to guide me, no one
to assist me,” McTiernan wrote. “I was the
reluctant hero on a journey with no map or
signposts, and I was running out of fuel.”
She turns to psychotherapy to try to sort
things out.
Most people suff ering from chronic anx-
iety don’t like to talk about it, but the con-
dition is more common than we think. One
in fi ve Americans suff ers from some kind
of anxiety disorder — but if we regard this
as a personal failing rather than a recog-
nized disability, it often goes untreated,
according to McTiernan.
By sharing her personal experience with
anxiety, which includes elements both petty
and profound (for even minor complaints
can seem insurmountable when one is hob-
bled by anxiety), McTiernan demonstrates
that this is a condition that can be addressed
and mitigated. In her own case, asking for
help led her on a slow but steady journey
that taught her how to identify and share
her emotions and build her self-confi dence.
“Cured” off ers an encouraging story
about developing resilience.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com.
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