The High Price of Eating Disorders:

The topic of weight has long been a touchy subject in most societies, and today’s culture is no exception. From obesity issues to media portrayals of body image and expectation, people are constantly bombarded by issues of weight and personal appearance. While this barrage affects people of all ages, genders, sizes, and upbringings, the demographic most noticeably affected by the topic of weight is adolescent girls, who are seeing a surge in struggles with a variety of eating disorders. Like most mental illnesses, eating disorders are a difficult subject to broach, and as a sensitive topic it often tends to go unaddressed by many. The fact of the matter, however, is that eating disorders are a very serious illness, and like many serious illnesses, they can be incredibly costly to treat. From inpatient therapy to outpatient follow-up, hundreds of thousands of dollars can quickly go into trying to eradicate the illness. What’s most frightening about this cost, however, is that it causes millions of people each year to forgo the treatment they need to address eating disordered behavior. When eating disorders go untreated, the consequences can be deadly, and as the eating disordered demographics have shifted to include girls as young as eight or nine, the problem of overly expensive treatment for eating disorders needs to be addressed more than ever.