Quote: It's hard to believe that by now we don't have great treatments available.
Well, blame Freud. The problem is that so much attention has been directed towards finding psychological explanations for what is largely a biological disease, that often the treatment just makes it worse by focusing on finding an "explanation' for why the sufferer got sick. I just read the saddest book, Slim to None, based on the posthumously published journals of an anorexic treated in the 80's. Her therapists kept blaming the family, accused her of having an Oedipal complex because her dad was loving and caring and had a good R with her, eventually convinced her that she must have been abused, so she went through all her old photos and memeories trying to figure out who "might" have done it (even years later in her journals she didn't really believe anything ever happened, but she made stuff up to make her therapist happy).
All of this nonsense separated her from her true support structure, her family. It worsened her dperession and kept her from getting the practical, behavioral help she needed to deal with the compulsive aspects of her disease.
Interestingly, the treatment of OCD and BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder), which are both closely related to anorexia, doesn't dwell on this stuff. But I think there is a large entrenched establishment in the treatment of eating disorders which is just very hard to turn around.
