To think the NHS should not be cutting funding for Anorexia and EDs if they are going to be spending ££££ on weight loss jabs

@9ToGoal So £1,098 x 250,000 over three years is, what, £91.5M a year?

Current spending on treatments for eating disorders for children and young people is £101M a year.

@B00kThi3f does that make you feel any better? Or do you still think that obese people are getting "the moon on a stick"?

There is very little understanding of anorexia outside of the families who have experienced it. Comparing the death rate to that of many cancers is eye opening. I think there is a bit of a feeling that its a white middle class girl issue and they just need to snap out of it. Or a FFS just eat more and you'll be fine attitude.

It is a very complex MH disorder which can be treated. However, recovery is unlikely without support and suicide is a real risk.

I wasn't aware of this decision and I can't understand it. I'm so sorry OP.

Its disgraceful that your daughter and other people can't get services they desperately need. However I'm not sure it's helpful to set up one health cost in competition with another. I mean, why not ED versus cancer treatment? Money is being spent on addressing obesity not because people die more quickly, but because it costs more while people are alive. Tackling obesity before it becomes more of a drain on health services should, in theory at least, free up money for treatment for other diseases.

£1098 is what it costs the NHS per person on the maximum dose of semaglutide/tirzepatide for 9 months of treatment. Not per month, for the full 9 months. They must have a BMI over 35 and at least one related health condition. 250,000 people should be prescribed within the first 3 years. Obesity costs the NHS £6.5b pa and is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer. Don't we treat preventable cancer causes? It costs the economy approximately £100b for contrast.

Endometriosis treatment approximately £17k, surgery not the medication, no guarantee it works either, 10+ year wait. Costs economy £8.2b pa. PCOS costs NHS a further £137m pa. Both of these can be helped with weight loss. Both make it difficult to lose weight.

Add Type 2 diabetes to that ... you get the picture.

NHS funding even some of these injections saves in the long term.

My region has started prescribing for T2, just not my part of it. You'll be happy to know my GP advised me to go private last year, after 3 years of being on the waiting list (approved for diabetic use Jan 2019) Or move. So I have been forced to contribute, in full to the cost. Still bedridden with endo 3 full days ever 27 days. Still diabetic. Still got PCOS. Still overweight because the WLI haven't helped me lose weight because I was already eating healthily average 1500-1700 kcals a day for years.

I don't agree that they are not connected.

They are hugely connected.

Seeing already slim celebs using the drugs will be extremely triggering for ED patients, and even just hearing about this drug which suppresses appetite will be triggering and likely worsen the symptoms for ED patients.

For those ED sufferers who try to inject with these drugs, the consequences could be fatal.

They are very much linked. Funding one group (weight loss injections) WILL negatively impact the other group and cause costs if their care to rise.

I believe that we absolutely NEED to ensure weight loss jab advertising is controlled, there needs to be tighter control of social media, access to these drugs needs to be much MUCH tighter, and we need a strategy to support ED patients with managing this new wave of WL drugs and including education around WL drugs in ED treatment and resources.

We cannot think of one without the other. We also need to massively address the underfunding in ED in this country, and currently there needs to be much more research on better treatments for ED because in 2025 we are still seeing disproportionate numbers of people dying of the disorder or enduring these disorders for YEARS.

They are contributing to the cost - it's called paying tax.

💛low calorie consumption is very harmful for people who are already thin/slim. If you are obese, cutting calories can really help you improve health, but even on the jabs it's not recommended to go below 1500, with the absolute lowest being 1200. Most obese people on the jabs are aiming for 1500cal per day.

If you are already slim, then your body needs the fuel to function, going lower than 1000 to 1200 cals per day for an already slim person is dangerous and will result in all sorts of complications including that the heart may eventually just shut down and you will die.

I understand where you are coming from. But please take care of yourself. The ED specialists who advised you to keep your calories up were advising this in your best interests. They want to keep you alive and healthy.

Weight loss jabs are for overweight and obese people to get them back into the 20 to 25 BMI range.

Please take care, please don't read or watch things about the jabs which are triggering. Focus on you and on keeping your BMI above 19. That's the healthiest and best place you can be. Don't worry about everyone else, their journeys are not your journey.

💛💐

As a former anorexic (recovered for 20 years) I am really saddened and appalled that anorexic patients are being given palliative care.

I think both anorexia and obesity need to be treated and I don't think its neccessarily helpful to think that the budget for treating obesity ought to be cut , ideally there should be adequate funding for both conditions

My Instagram grid suddenly seems full of pro Ana pages and I don't know what changed the algorithm to do that. Whilst I've been recovered for a long time I find it upsetting and also concerning the volume of accounts there are. (I also think MN seems quite pro Ana at times and I deliberately don't read some threads aside know they will be unhelpful )

You seem to have missed this @B00kThi3f
Spending on anorexia isn't being cut, it's increasing. This makes your whole thread misinformation and a pointless attack on obese people, doesn't it?
What's your motivation?

Why do you assume it’s a quick fix? Many, many people battle obesity for decades. It’s a huge killer. Weight loss jabs are relatively cheap. Of course help with obesity should be funded as much as possible. It’s not an either/ or and one is not more ‘worthy’ than the other. Of course anorexia services ought to be fully funded but not by cutting back on obesity treatment!

I was just coming on to say this.

Injections on the NHS are very hard to get hold of. And they are prescribed to those who are really at risk of weight related complications in the long term that cost the NHS billions in treatment and hospital admissions (diabetes, heart failure etc).

The issue of reducing funding for conditions that stem from being underweight is a separate debate.

Not minimising the impact and suffering of people with ED but around 1.8% have an eating disorder vs 68.3% either overweight or obese so you can see why resources would be more directed at the latter.

As you might gather from my name, I have a lot of experience with child (and now adult) mental health services for a child with ASD, ADHD & other comorbid conditions including anxiety. I know how stretched these services are. Many children are on long waiting lists for diagnosis and treatment/support. I still don't think that sick people should be denied NHS treatment for completely separate conditions.

The two groups are connected. Both involve intake of food. Some obese patients apparantly do have eating disorders too. How is it fair that one group gets the moon on a stick whereas the other just get cuts. Particularly when outcome and saving lives hinges on early treatment.

The fact that they are related to food intake does not mean they are connected. They are entirely different, with different causes, different treatment, different outcomes. It is not a case of "the NHS has X amount to spend on food-related disorders but is giving it all to the obese people and leaving people with anorexia to die" like you seem to think it is.

It has been explained multiple times now. Obese children will cost the NHS more through their lives than a child with AN. In part, because the obesity won't kill them, but it will leave them with a host of other issues all which need to be treated long term until old age.

I understand that you're anxious and upset but tour anger is misplaced. WLI are not just some "quick fix". They are a valid treatment option and an investment by the NHS to reduce the amount of spend on obesity-related disease, meaning there will be more money for other things in the long run.

Anorexia has the highest death rate of all mental illness.

Afaic disordered eating is a spectrum with anorexia/bulimia at one end and obesity at the other. Obesity is fuelled by addictive eating, binge eating and emotional eating, it’s not just about food ignorance and lack of exercise.

But they don't "just give them to everyone". There is a strict set of criteria you need to meet, specifically to avoid prescribing them to people such as your friend. Instead, your friend chose to repeatedly lie about her situation to get something she knew she shouldn't be getting.

even if they do, that won't impact and make money for cuts made in other areas. The two are unconnected. Decisions made by different people for different reasons.

Your anger is directed at the wrong bunch of people

only a tiny fraction of people with obesity who have been made ill by it will get weight loss medication. Treatment is hard to access. Waiting lists for specialist weight management clinics are around two years. It’s hardly ‘moon on a stick’.

You need to a step back and look at this objectively. You don't seem to have a grasp of the cost or implications of obesity or how NHS funding works. I'm sorry for what you're daughter and other sufferers are going through but it's not the fault of obese people

No they shouldn't be a short term thing. The opposite actually.

Yes, yes, no.

The only one doing an activity accepted to be beneficial to health was the footballer. So fixing him encourages people to do sport as they’ll be treated if accidents happen.

The others were knowingly imbibing toxins.

Why can’t anorexia patients be forced to contribute to the cost of their treatment in the same way then?

Wow. That is really disordered thinking. There is a difference between obese people getting to a healthy weight and the mental health condition a anorexia nerves which drives people to starve themselves to death.

Oh yes.

The mistake you are making isn't just conflating two completely separate issues, but ignoring completely how efficient the treatments are.

Unfortunately there are no treatments for anorexia even a fraction as effective as the WLIs are for reducing obesity. You are talking as if £1000 spent on WLI will have the same impact on obesity as £1000 on eating disorders would. It is just not the case.

If you had the money to offer someone with an eating disorder two weeks in residential treatment, what is the actual success rate of that, more than 5-10% for one person having a degree of success? For the same money you could treat about 20 or more people who are severely at risk of dying from obesity and get really good results for them - results which save money in the long run.

There are other places you should be targeting your frustration, research into better ED treatments, campaigning to limit how porn is making teenage girls feel objectified, cosmetic treatments etc. Severely obese people getting help is not it.

While I agree with you that not enough money is spent on mental health, and particularly on anorexia nervosa which is life threatening, you're totally wrong about the relationship with funding for weight loss drugs.

These drugs are expensive in the short term, but in the long run they will save the country money. Obesity costs billions. Not only in healthcare costs, but also for social care and benefits due to people needing care or not being able to work because of complications of obesity.