A parent’s firsthand account reveals how eating disorders in adolescents can develop insidiously, with warning signs that are easily overlooked until crisis strikes. In this case, initial signs included a daughter becoming less interested in eating, making smaller portions of her own meals, and becoming obsessed with food shows on television while making food for others that she didn’t eat herself. Combined with increased exercise—Pilates and running—these patterns went largely unnoticed despite later appearing glaringly obvious in hindsight.
By the time the eating disorder was identified during a holiday visit, when the daughter’s “abstention from the orgy of festal dining was glaring,” she had already experienced very rapid weight loss. At the pediatrician’s office on January 7, 2025, during the Los Angeles wildfires, the doctor took one look and instructed immediate emergency room admission. The daughter, then only 12 years old, would spend the next nine months in and out of hospitals and residential treatment programs.
Scope and Severity of the Crisis
Eating disorders are much more common and more deadly than widely understood, and have become significantly more widespread in the wake of COVID-19. A study commissioned by researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital prior to the pandemic found that 9 percent of the population, or 30 million Americans, would experience an eating disorder in their lifetime, including 2 million kids and teens alive today who will experience an eating disorder before their 20th birthday. The pandemic brought a perfect storm of risk factors, isolating kids and teens to consume endless social media while suffering relentless anxiety and stress. Children’s hospitals recorded a doubling of emergency room visits and admissions for eating disorders early in the pandemic, and those numbers never retreated to pre-pandemic levels.
Eating disorders have among the highest mortality rates of any mental illness, with some 5 percent of patients dying within the first four years of diagnosis. Anorexia is particularly deadly, with patients at risk of organ failure, heart problems, and suicide. Risk factors include family history, other mental health issues like trauma, anxiety and depression, social media, and a seductive sense of control amid chaos. Treatment typically involves hospitalization with intensive meal plans, behavioral monitoring, and long-term residential placement—a grueling process that tests family bonds and insurance coverage.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://slate.com/life/2026/02/eating-disorder-treatment-prevention-hospitalization.html?via=rss