EU

I'm calling this post the EU (European Union, you ask?  No, it's short for E Update).  As I noted in a previous post, my stepdaughter-to-be recently decided on her own to seek treatment for the severe eating disorder that has plagued her since jr. high school.  She has been in and out of treatment since I first met her dad five and a half years ago, for the most part without success.  I can't recall the exact number of programs she has tried, but I think there have been at least 6 (and a few of those multiple times), the last being the program that she entered in Arizona on Christmas day.  She came home after just over a week there, but then took the proactive step of seeking admission to UCLA.

She has been to UCLA before, but it was as an adolescent and now at age 19, she qualifies for the adult program.  She started the program on Friday.  This program is housed in a brand-new facility and is limited to 6 adults.  The fact that it's a smaller group is a huge blessing...  One of the problems with treatment programs is that the patients often use one another as a resource for gleaning new tips to perfect the craft of not eating.  E is far beyond the point of needing tips-- if anorexia were an Olympic sport, she would be a gold medalist many times over.  Her dad and I often remark that if she could devote the same energy that she has devoted to anorexia to other pursuits, she might have found a cure for cancer by now.  Therein lies a strength and pitfall of eating disorder patients--  often they are extremely bright and extremely competitive.  Not only are treatment facilities utilized by patients as an opportunity to share information, they are also the perfect arena for showing off one's skills and competing with one another.

I would like to take the opportunity here in my blog to thank God that E is in treatment.  However, even among a group limited to five other individuals, it is going to be tough for her to put aside her desire to be the best anorexic.  Already she has been asking her dad to smuggle in the contraband items of gum and mints.  Her body is in treatment, but her mind isn't quite there yet.  I know that getting better is the hardest thing she has ever had to do.  I know that I probably am writing into a vacuum with this blog (it's more therapeutic for me than anything else) but if anyone is out there, please send positive thoughts and prayers her way.