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

[B00kThi3f]

Anorexia and ED numbers are soaring. My daughter has battled the disease for 6 years. It kills far quicker than obesity and the sooner it is treated the better the outcome. During the last few years I have witnessed so many parents fighting for treatment and now in some severe cases patients are just being given palliative care.

Most areas are now planning cuts to specialist eating disorder services.

The fact we apparantly have ££££ to spend on weight loss jabs when children and young people are essentially being left to die is not ok and highlights a quick fix medicated approach by the NHS as opposed to longer term MH provision.

I found it to be a patronising and incorrect post actually. I’m extremely well informed about Anorexia having supported a young person with it for many years and having had it myself. She also had treatment, many people aren’t so lucky.

It’s not my link. I was referring simply to the figures the PP gave showing an above inflation rise.

I'm getting the impression op thinks that obesity is a choice and therefore not deserving of treatment, funding, sympathy

I’m not sure what you’re expecting people to say, op. It’s a scandal that mental health is so woefully underfunded. But money isn’t being taken from treating mental health problems and being used for weight loss injections instead. It’s just not.
I think a pp asked if you’d have the same opinion of a new cancer drug being rolled out as you do the WLI. You didn’t answer but we all know what your answer would be.

I agree with you about funding for ED treatment and for CAMHS, which essentially isn't providing a service at all for the vast majority. It's not always possible to go private either, even if you have the means to pay.

I'm not sure about the link to weight loss medication though, which should save the NHS money in the medium and long term. Why not just fund everything adequately?

That's the thing OP seems to be missing, if the NHS does fund weight loss jabs, they'll save a ton of money on various co-morboties, and hopefully they can funnel some more of that cash to EDs (although I won't hold my breath on that one.

They do. Tax and NI like the rest of us.

And £9.60 for each prescription.

Can I ask where the cuts to ED services has come from? Can't find anything online specifically talking about this but 600m has been allocated to social care and 26m to mental health centres?

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-funding-to-fix-the-nhs-heres-how-it-will-be-spent#:~:text=As%20part%20of%20the%20Autumn,%2C%20excluding%20COVID%2D19%20years.

This.

And was I the only one to be confused about the connection between anorexia and erectile dysfunction ?

No? Probably my age then... 😂

Like the way we used to treat anorexics then.

I'm glad times have moved on.

What's your point

I find it quite worrying that the mother of a young person with anorexia should be so hostile towards and prejudiced about people suffering with the disease of obesity. Overweight/obesity is not a moral failure any more than anorexia is. The OP’s disgust at fat people (I’m not overweight btw) is not a healthy example.

I have had ED my whole life. I was anorexic for many years, and am now obese. For many people (not all) they are deeply connected. I absolutely agree with you, OP, that anorexia services are vital, but deeply disagree with you seeing obesity services as the culprit for them being underfunded.

Adult obesity services are shockingly underdeveloped and the arrival of weight loss jabs hasn't changed that. It is highly convenient for so many people (including in the NHS) to pretend the answer is health education and self control. About as useful as telling an anorexic to 'just eat more'.

OP

You seem incredibly angry at everyone and everything.

Maybe an Internet forum isn't the best place for you.

Suggest you stop arguing with strangers in the Internet and go do something that won't aggravate you further. This is solving nothing for you, aside from increasing your anger and stress. à

I'm not sure if you are being facetious

Does it though? What about the costs of someone with anorexia not being able to work and earn money, pay taxes and contribute to society, instead we'd be paying someone unfit to work in terms of disability benefits.

Surely we have to look broader than simply the "cost" to the NHS. We need to also factor in costs in other areas too.

@AlmostAJillSandwich I hear you. I've suffered from this disorder since a young child. I have a background of complex trauma which started in infancy. I'm 25 stone and I'm so tired of it all. I went back to Overeaters Anonmymous online meeting today for first time in ages (it helped before some years ago now) and I feel I need to get back in recovery. I have been having therapy for the trauma and other related diagnoses including BPD/EUPD and have made some progress but eating still remaining an issue. Today I felt some renewed hope that maybe I can do this . I've been in a freeze mode kind of slump for so long.

Yes agree . I think there is more going on here than anger at funding. Especially considering the Op has had anorexia herself.

You were too thin, dangerously so, couldn't see that and so had to be pushed into eating. And that probably saved your life. Be grateful that those that are overweight are also getting the help they need to live the longest, healthiest life they can.
If you truly can't see the difference in circumstances you need to go and ask for support again.

I think we all know the agenda here. Op comes across as intelligent and articulate so I fail to see how she doesn’t understand that this one particular drug isn’t the cause of the underfunding. She knows full well it’s not. This is just an excuse to have a go at a group of people she clearly despises.

Unfortunately with eating disorders, they only seem to use bmi and only help people when it’s too late. I went from being an overweight 19 year old at about 15 stone (I’m only short) to within 5 months being 6 stone because I refused to eat. I went to my gp and they saw the concern and referred me to an eating disorder clinic. The clinic wrote back within a week and said that I was in the average bmi and I wasn’t a candidate for help. They looked over the fact that I wasn’t eating and dropped 9 stone in 5 months because I wasnt eating, over exercising and using laxatives. I was fainting, I had stomach issues, I was severely malnourished and had to be hospitalised multiple times especially with dehydration as in my eyes even water made me ‘fat’. I unfortunately tried to end my own life a few months later because I wasn’t getting the help I deserved- and even then the mh help with the nhs during impatient care and post care is shocking.

its such a shame that so many people are getting help and support to lose weight and funding is put into the weight loss support but mental health disorders and Ed’s are not taken seriously or have the funding to take people seriously until it’s too late

its such a shame that so many people are getting help and support to lose weight and funding is put into the weight loss support but mental health disorders and Ed’s are not taken seriously or have the funding to take people seriously until it’s too late

This is an awful thing to say and really unnecessary. You can campaign and want those with eds to have more help without complaining about others getting weight loss support.

You do realise that many obese people also have mental health conditions?

Have you read the thread???

It is a shame that there’s no Ozempic equivalent for AN that people can administer themselves online at low cost.
WLI are not the reasons why ED are overlooked. You must be old enough to know that services that affect children and women the most are always seriously underfunded and under researched. Gynaecology is another specialism with the same fate.

WLI are rightly not available on the NHS to anyone who wants them but they provide the opportunity for massive savings on procedures and treatment associated with obesity eg cancer, heart attacks. Hospitals have to balance the books and if investing £150pm on a patient saves hundreds of thousands, even million + then it’s the logical thing to do. It doesn’t mean that ED patients should be left to die - if it frees therapists and say physios and heart specialists then that’s a good thing for ED sufferers.

Your local ED services may be cut because of the increase in NI and minimum wage. It’s sad for the people who need the services but I don’t begrudge minimum wage staff getting paid more at an increasingly expensive time.