Dates: 2020 – 2025 (Age 15–20)
LOC: Inpatient & Outpatient

The Inpatient Protocol:
The “doorway” eating protocol is strictly enforced: 30 minutes for meals, 30 for supplements, or you get an NG tube. They perform orthostatics twice a day. While you fill out a menu, they often disregard your choices. During one of my stays, I was kept for two months instead of being sent to a specialized residential facility because they thought I would not go. During this time, I was on a “normal” meal plan of massive proportions (e.g., 4 uncrustables, sun chips, 3 orders of broccoli cheese, 2 chocolate milks). My body was constantly sick from the sheer volume. They had never done a long stay for someone like that so I was basically there test trial and when it came to me leaving they realized and told that it was a bad idea and they would never try it again with anyone else. Most of my stay before this were like 2 weeks at the most to just stabilize me and send me home. The most recent stay they didn’t let me eat for almost 2 weeks and just gave me constant tube feeds at a very high volume and then started to add food and expected me to eat all normal meal plan with the same amount of volume of the tube feed + the overnight feed they added!
Staff & Environment:
• Medical over Therapy: There is almost zero therapeutic support. There was only one psychologist for the unit. Most of the “treatment” is just forced weight gain.
• Nursing Culture: I overheard nurses talking about patients’ bodies—comparing who was the “smallest” and labeling me a “frequent flyer.” I also had two nurses go through my phone without permission because I left it open when they took it to be locked up.
• Lack of Privacy/Safety: I had a sitter 24/7, was not allowed to leave my room, and was forced to shower with the door open.
[*TW: restraints*]
Coercion & Restraints:
The doctor’s default was “restrain her if she refuses.” I was threatened with physical restraints for refusing to change clothes or for feed refusals. I was forced to take medication that I was uncomfortable with, which eventually put me into a manic state. At one point, they even sent me home with a tube still in, expecting my parents to manage the entire medical process themselves.
[*END TW*]
Outpatient & Advocacy:
The outpatient team (Dr. S****/L**** B****) can be sweet when you are “doing well,” but if you struggle, the tone shifts to being dismissive. They threatened to stop seeing me if I didn’t “progress,” which is a terrifying thing to tell someone with a restrictive ED. My parents had to threaten to sue the hospital to keep me when I was unstable, and when I had relapsed and gotten very sick but the hospital initially refused to take me back.
Summary:
This program focuses on the scale, not the person. They use high-pressure tactics and lack the psychiatric resources to actually help with the mental side of the illness. I left more traumatized than I arrived. Over the past 5 years I can say there have been some good things that have happened through the program but overall I’ve only declined and been left worse mentally than when I started seeing them!