Status of Women committee  Who would you like to answer that?

Status of Women committee  It's both. It's very much both. We know there are predisposing factors in terms of genetics and biology if there's anxiety, but we also know that when the brain is starved, it's very difficult to have cognition and to even be able to have therapy when you're that underweight. The newest research that they're doing out of Toronto will tell us that it's very much both, and that we have to rule out one in terms of how a lot of the treatments will make you get to a certain weight before they will even engage you in any sort of therapeutic intervention.

Status of Women committee  It can be. Not necessarily but sometimes would be the answer. I think what we know is that certain personality types may be more predisposed. If you're an anxious child, or if you have a lot of worry in your family, or as Lisa mentioned, any sort of mental illness in itself, we notice there can be a genetic component.

Status of Women committee  I personally think the other part of it is that it's an illness that is seemingly about food, which most people don't even think about. That makes the general population think that it's very simple. I often think that if people found out that I went to rehab for a drug addiction they would sympathize with me a lot more.

Status of Women committee  That's a good question. The situation is slightly better. We have another four beds since the time I was in treatment. We have a Credit Valley program now. But I have lots of clients who have been on waiting lists for months and months and who are very near being hospitalized.

Status of Women committee  Part of it was I was diagnosed with the anxiety and the depression very early on, probably when I was around 15. The medications weren't coupled with any sort of therapy. They kept trying me on different medications because it wasn't working. The medications weren't making me eat and they weren't making me get better.

Status of Women committee  I would. I have two clients who I'm working with right now who are paying thousands of dollars a day to go to the States, because we have nothing here.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely, yes.

Status of Women committee  I think that's a really loaded question. To answer the first part of your question, if you can't afford therapy and there's nowhere for you to go, you get sicker. I think Lisa raised a really good point in that you have to have early intervention, and it's during that time when you get diagnosed that, if you're not doing anything, you get sicker.