First and foremost, eating disorders don't exist in a vacuum, so generally speaking there's always going to be.... It's an anxiety-based illness, so there's anxiety, depression. There's a very high level of comorbidity that is happening.
To answer your question in terms of challenges, it is very challenging because you have to meet the specific criteria of whatever the program is. I was told that I was too sick for certain programs. Some of my clients who maybe are struggling with any sort of substance abuse or alcoholism, they are no longer eligible for these programs. A lot of programs don't treat binge eating disorder. There is a lot of criteria that you have to meet to be able to access the treatment that we have right now. That is really challenging.
From FBT, family-based treatments, the Maudsley approach, if the family doesn't have the resources to take time off work to do the work that you need to do with your child.... I have worked with many families for whom that's very challenging. A particular family that I worked with had five kids in the house, so it was very hard for them to not have the eating disorder affect the rest of the children. They were scrutinized and really made to feel that they were bad parents through their program because they couldn't take that time to help their daughter through the way that FBT or the Maudsley approach needs to happen.
It's a very big problem in terms of lots of doctors finding that eating disorders are too complex to treat because they are so multi-faceted.