Thin

[Null-GPUOT]

This was a documentary about several patients at Renfrew's Florida residential eating disorder treatment center. I found it to be incredibly frustrating, particularly the inept staff (there is no way patients should have been able to hoard and share drugs like that at a treatment facility, and the clinicians seemed petty and quick to label patients) and the issues with insurance. I was sad for patients who needed and wanted more care but were kicked out, and annoyed by patients who were ambivalent about recovery yet had tons of past admissions because they had more forgiving insurance. Sadly, not much has changed in terms of insurance covering residential/inpatient treatment for mental illness...

[Liamsmom617]

  Just re-watched this doc recently. The whole thing made me sad and frustrated....especially knowing that Polly committed suiceide a few years later. 

  The one who truly broke my heart was Brittany. Her own mother had her own eating disorder and seemed to encourage Brittany to continue the same self-destructive behaviors. I hope Brittany has somehow managed to find her way to recovery and away from that toxic Mom of hers. 

[VagueDisclaimer]

This remains as one of my favorite docs. And as an update, I follow Shelly on Instagram and she seems to be doing well. 

[SunnyBeBe]

I just saw this film and it was very interesting.  I actually came to view eating disorders in a whole different way after seeing this.  

It's sad about insurance coverage, but, I get it. Insurance is not going to cover but for so long. That's not the fault of the facility.  If they don't get paid, they can't stay open and have staff.  I see why some family members may not want to spend private funds on this kind of care, especially, if the patient is resistant to care.

The impression that I got is that the CORE issue was of mental illness, with it being manifested through an eating disorder.  Similarly, those who are morbidly obese also have mental illness that they use overeating to cope with.  Is anorexia classified as OCD behavior?  I kept wondering if some of these girls should have been stabilized first, before going into treatment for the eating disorder. 

One thing that I noticed is that all of the girls and women seemed extremely immature, even those over the age of 20.  I know that you can't take this approach with minors, but, what if the women were just allowed to run their own lives, without anyone begging them to eat, taking them to doctors, pleading with them to get help......?  If just left on their own to run their own life, what happens then?  It seems they derive a lot of attention from being begged to eat and get healthy.  And, when that stops, they get skinny again.  I wonder if anyone has done a study on it.  

Polly seemed to be very hyper and I wonder what was really going on with her.  Was she taking meds for ADHD? Was she taking some illegal stimulant?  Or was this mania?  All I could think of with Polly, was Borderline Personality Disorder.  Before I knew what happened to her after discharge, I said aloud, she won't survive long. Her risk taking decisions were out the roof.  

I can't see how Brittany would recover in a nonsupportive home.  Again, it seemed that mental illness was the core problem.  I wonder if a standard psychiatric setting would have been better, to get her stable. 

Shelly seemed to really do well.  I'm glad to see here that she's still doing well.  

I read that Alisa was doing well too.  I hope that's the case. 

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by SunnyBeBe