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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?

I don't want to put words in anyones mouth @suzyQ3 but I feel she is talking about gastric bypass, instead of using mental heath procedures, in weight loss.. In the series about eating disorders ,I notice they use both ,sometimes

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@SeaMaiden wrote:

@cherry wrote:

I saw a film about eating disorders. The lady affected ,wanted to eat ,she just couldn't get it down. They filmed her, while she ate privately, and I could have just wept, to she her struggling trying to make herself eat. I think that it is more complicated that just wanting to eat. I believe this woman , fully  desperately, wanted to be well, but food just revolted her


@cherry  Just to enlighten you and others here....I was Anorexic for many years in my youth. It has nothing to do with not being able to eat....anorexics are SO HUNGRY but, the FEAR of one calorie...the FEAR of fat is so ingrained in your every waking moment, you CAN NOT put food into to your body.  As an anorexic you think about food all the time....but, you will not allow yourself to eat. Food does not revolt you....it frightens you.

 

And YES, you want to be well.....you want to be normal...but you just CAN'T eat normally like people around you.  It is a very lonely disease. It is as much physical as it is mental.  

 

I must add that unless you understand the illness by living it, you can not fully comprehend  how a person thinks with this illness.  That is why therapy does  not help very many anorexics,  and, why so many die from it.  I was fortunate to be able to come through the illness, but, I had many years of  terrible struggle  and unhappilness during those years.  I call them my lost years. 


Thanks so much for that explanation.  It is difficult for those of us who have never experienced this to understand.  Very glad you came through this!!  Hugs!

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@cherry wrote:

I don't want to put words in anyones mouth @suzyQ3 but I feel she is talking about gastric bypass, instead of using mental heath procedures, in weight loss.. In the series about eating disorders ,I notice they use both ,sometimes


Right. I inferred that as well, @cherry. But I also inferred that she wished that we would not comestize instead of treating it as a mental health/physical health situation. With anorexia, though, there is only one mode of treatment with only differences in approach.


~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@Isobel Archer wrote:

@cherry wrote:

Can they force someone to be on a feeding tube?


I don't know.  Either this is a mental condition and she is not competent to refuse medical treatment - or it isn't and she can.

 

She's quoted as saying - "There are so many people like me out there with this disorder.  They could possibly die any day and can't get the help they need."

 

Yet she is refusing food - which would seem to be the primary core of the help she needs (physically at least).  She is not even at the 65 pound weight she needs to be to get into the program she apparently wants.

 

 


She weighs 58 pounds. Why is she allowed to negotiate her daily caloric intake? I did read the whole article.

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@Bri63 wrote:

@151949 wrote:

No matter what insurance you have , from medicade to the besdt money can buy , it is very difficult to get insurance to pay for mental health care in this country.


It’s not as hard as people think

 

There are many programs available for people today - much more than in the past.  Insurance companies allow much more coverage than in the past.   Patient compliance is often an issue - so are drug and alcohol issues coupled with the mental illness

 

 


Oh really. I guess that is why the mentally ill in our country are getting such great care. (note sarcasm).That must be why people are going around shooting and killing so many people - because they are getting their mental illnesses appropriately treated before they get to this point of desparation. That must be why so many homeless in our country - because they are getting their mental illnesses so well treated while they are in the system. Good Grief!!!!

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@151949 wrote:

@Bri63 wrote:

@151949 wrote:

No matter what insurance you have , from medicade to the besdt money can buy , it is very difficult to get insurance to pay for mental health care in this country.


It’s not as hard as people think

 

There are many programs available for people today - much more than in the past.  Insurance companies allow much more coverage than in the past.   Patient compliance is often an issue - so are drug and alcohol issues coupled with the mental illness

 

 


Oh really. I guess that is why the mentally ill in our country are getting such great care. (note sarcasm).That must be why people are going around shooting and killing so many people - because they are getting their mental illnesses appropriately treated before they get to this point of desparation. That must be why so many homeless in our country - because they are getting their mental illnesses so well treated while they are in the system. Good Grief!!!!


@151949@Bri63

 

Bri is correct-programs are only as effective when used and HOW they are used.

 

To paint the whole issue of mental illness on lack of insurance coverage is incorrect.

Mental illness is complex and doesn't arise with all kinds of red flags flying all the time; and mental illness can happen at any time in a person's life.

 

And the homeless population isn't comprised of just mentally ill people.

 

 

"" Compassion is a verb."-Thich Nhat Hanh
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Registered: ‎04-16-2010

Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?

 The Columbia Center in NYC has offered to treat her FOR FREE but the minimum weight to be accepted as a patient there is 65 pounds and she weighs 58 pounds. The hospital she's in is doing what all anorexia treatment facilities do, i.e., trying to restore her weight to an at least minimum amount. The physical/medical treatment is ongoing while the mental illness itself is being treated.  The immediate priority, though, is for the patient to gain weight in order to try to prevent organ failure and cardiac arrest.     

At this point she is unwilling or unable to eat the required minimum amount of food (calories) per day to gain weight. Hopefully, she will be able to start eating enough to achieve the minimum of sixty-five pounds so she can be admitted to the Columbia program. She has been sick for a very long time.

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@suzyQ3 wrote:

God help anyone who has to reach 65 pounds to enlist. For many, that would be a death sentence.

 

As to the idea that she has to want treatment, oh please. When in the throes of such a condition, she cannot help herself or make rational decisions. If she in fact allows treatment, that in and of itself is a breakthrough.

 

Anorexia is a partiularly daunting condition to treat. And it is a particularly cruel and consuming one -- often causing extreme ill health and consequently death.


I have to correct my first sentence. For some inexplicable reason, I thought it was that she had to get down, not up, to 65 pounds.


~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?

@suzyQ3  I think she was at something like 56 lbs. I hope for her it isn't a death sentence. I don't know how much longer she can go, at the weight she is now. It might take her too long to get to 65 lbs.  I pray not.

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Re: Anorexia treatment a luxury program and insurance refuses to treat it ?


@cherry wrote:

@suzyQ3  I think she was at something like 56 lbs. I hope for her it isn't a death sentence. I don't know how much longer she can go, at the weight she is now. It might take her too long to get to 65 lbs.  I pray not.


That's why I wondered about a feeding tube.  It would seem that maintaining at her current weight - or worse yet, continuing to lose, would be a death sentence.  Her body is already beginning to shut down.  I'd think she needs immediate nourishment.