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An anorexic woman from Grimsby says she was denied treatment for her eating disorder because she was 'not thin enough'.
Chelsea Salt, 27, has been battling anorexia for seven years.
She had been in a good place for the past two years, but started struggling with her eating disorder through lockdown due to anxiety, and decided to seek help from her local NHS Community Clinic in York, where she now lives.
But when Chelsea had her appointment at the clinic, she was told she would be unable to get treatment because her Body Mass Index (BMI), was above the level classed for anorexia.
NHS guidelines state adult patients with a BMI below 17.5 are diagnosed as being anorexic, but Ms Salt has a BMI of 20.
However, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), people with anorexia can have a BMI higher or lower than average - and BMI is just one of 14 signs that can indicate an eating disorder.
Speaking to the BBC, Chelsea said: "They [the clinic] said 'you won't get in because your BMI is too high'. It makes me feel like a fraud.
"You start questioning yourself, like maybe there's nothing wrong with me and it makes it harder to move forward."
She also said using BMI to diagnose anorexia gave the wrong message to those seeking help.
Facts about Anorexia Anorexia most commonly affects girls and women, although it has become more common in boys and men in recent years. On average, the condition first develops at around the age of 16 to 17. Recent studies suggest that as many as 8% of women have bulimia at some stage in their life. The condition can occur at any age, but mainly affects women aged between 16 and 40 (on average, it starts around the age of 18 or 19. Bulimia nervosa can affect children, but this is extremely rare. Reports estimate that up to 25% of Britons struggling with eating disorders may be male. In 2007 the NHS information centre stated that up to 6.4% of adults displayed signs of an eating disorder. This research also suggested that up to 25% of those showing signs of an eating disorder were male. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder in adolescence. Of those surviving, 50% recover, whereas 30% improve and 20% remain chronically ill. About 40% of people referred to eating disorder clinics are classified ‘Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified’ with symptoms that don’t fit neatly into either the anorexia or bulimia classifications.
The relevant NHS Trust has said that it is committed to giving the right care.
Liz Herring, of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We're sorry to hear Ms Salt's concerns about the care and treatment she has received and would encourage her to raise these with us as soon as possible."
She said the health and wellbeing of its patients was "central to all we do".
Gigglepox on September 4th, 2020 at 14:38 UTC »
I starved myself in middle school because girls bullied me a lot and I thought I was ugly and being skinny would make the bullying stop. Dropped under 100 and started having fevers by sophomore year. No one noticed/cared until I started becoming physically unwell. Shit sucks
Lemons81 on September 4th, 2020 at 12:32 UTC »
Reminds me of my motor accident when the emergency services took too long to respond some good soul rushed my to the emergency room of the nearest hospital and my left foot, ankle and all toes where crushed, broken and bleeding. They first told me they couldn't treat me because they needed proof that my foot was broken, they refused to help me and my sister rushed me to another hospital where they finally helped me.
Took me 2 years to fully recover and I almost lost my foot duo blood clotting.
[deleted] on September 4th, 2020 at 12:24 UTC »
When I was in my early 20s, there was like a 6-month period where I was only eating like [number removed because people are getting hung up on it, but the point is— very few] calories a day. I started feeling scared about it, but also couldn’t seem to stop (guilt and other complex reasoning), so I decided to tell my psychologist about it about 2-3 months in.
I was expecting she would say it was some form of anorexia (but wasn’t fishing for her to or anything like that). She told me it wasn’t anorexia because my BMI was in the healthy range. I had lost like 20- 25 lbs (but weighed [weight removed] lbs when I spoke to her, which is still in-range for my height, 5’4”).
I kept eating that way for a while after because in my mind, she had essentially told me there was nothing wrong with what I was doing.
EDIT: whoa, was not expecting this to blow up. If so, I would have been more careful when writing. For all the people saying “there’s no way only you ate 150 cal for six months”— you‘re probably right. At the beginning I was definitely only eating 100–300 cal a day. Some days I would eat around 5 to 600 (and felt very guilty about it), other days I would eat a bite of bread. I ate more in the later months as I transitioned back to normal eating. It’s been over a decade since that time, so it’s hard for me to remember those kinds of numeric details. But I have distinct memories of many days where I would eat half a roll, then think “all right that’s enough!” I told my psych about it after 2-3 months, and kept restricting for months after (that’s why I estimated about 6 months, but I can’t claim I remember exactly how many calories I ate for the entire 6 months). I guess the point is not really the numbers.
Also, thanks for the concern. This was over 10 years ago. It was a brief period in my life and I haven’t had any problems like this since then.
EDIT #2. I am not claiming I was ever anorexic. I heavily restricted my eating, went to a doctor who told me I didn’t meet criteria for anorexia, then I continued restricting my eating. That’s the whole story. I wish I could just delete this post but there are too many replies, so I don’t know what to do.