HEALING THE NEW NORMAL –
May 27, 2021 – The program offers inpatient treatment and outpatient programs in several states, which switched to teletherapy when the pandemic began. That has continued, though some in-person treatment has resumed.
“We’ve seen an increase across the board” in patients of all races and ages, even young kids, she said. That includes LGBTQ people, who tend to have higher rates of eating disorders than other groups. Women and girls are more commonly affected than men.
Peyton Crest, an 18-year-old from Minnetonka, Minn., says she developed anorexia before the pandemic but has relapsed twice since it began.
She was already anxious and under pressure when school went online and social distancing began last year.
“It was my junior year, I was about to apply for college,” she said. Suddenly deprived of friends and classmates — her support system — she’d spend all day alone in her room and became preoccupied with thoughts of food and anorexic behavior.
