[Phigirl04]

A little over a year ago a left a residential treatment center for my eating disorder. At the time I left I was very involved with a co-ed honor fraternity, they were as a group unsupportive and pushed me away because of what they thought people would think. No one offered help or anything of the nature. Because of the way I was treated, I kept in touch with some of the brothers but in general I wanted nothing to do with the group when I returned. I joined a social sorority when I returned, and when I was going through recruitment I was still visibly sick. I was still quite underweight and exhibiting many of the signs of an anorexic, and some of the groups were quick to release me, but I found my home because I found a group that was willing to support me during the rest of my recovery.

Letting her participate in recruitment (if she wants to) may help her gain self-esteem or help her reach out to someone going through recruitment with the same problem (if she does truly have an ED). But to just push her out to some extent will make her feel that she has no one left or that she's a failure. The worst thing for someone with an ED, because it just reinforces the eating disorder and that she's not good enough.

On top of that, someone said that it's very easy to commit someone with anorexia or bulimia, truthfully it may be easy to get them committed for 72 hours in a psych. ward but this will do little to help them and may actually reinforce their behavior or make them close themself off to even more people. Getting someone real help is difficult, going through proceedings to force someone into treatment rarely work in most states because of the information required to get them court ordered into a program. (I'm saying this from personal experience and things I learned from others in my treatment programs). I had a heart attack before I could be forced into anything, and even then, they could only keep me in the cardiac icu. I had to agree to going inpatient into a facility for eating disorders.

My advice, talk to her and be there for her. Suggest but don't force anything because keeping the lines of communication open is more important than anything.