...Until Eating Disorders Are No More

Click the title for my full write-up from Lobby Day last week!

“We hold a Congressional Briefing every time there’s a Lobby Day to offer in-depth testimonies from a variety of people who have been effected by eating disorders. This Spring, the spotlight was on diversity, because eating disorders don’t discriminate by race, gender, orientation, cultural background, or socioeconomic status.

Among the speakers was Sarah Yeung, an immigrant from Hong Kong, shared a moving testimony about developing an eating disorder after relocating to the U.S. and the challenges she faced getting treatment. Another woman named Tracy Smith spoke on behalf of her daughter, Reanna, who died while waiting for treatment to be approved. Tracy had been told by her insurance company that her daughter’s eating disorder was not “life threatening” and denied treatment. Desperate, Tracy took a new job with a better insurance plan, but Reanna died just two weeks before the plan would have come into effect.

I wish these were uncommon stories. But I hear them all the time. In a country like the United States where eating disorders have been observed, treated, and diagnosed for over half a century, it is shameful and tragic and wrong that people are dying from a treatable and preventable problem in record numbers.”

The sign I’m holding reads: ‘ I support FREED because some people still don’t believe men can get eating disorders. I was anorexic for two years.’