ADULT
The Klarman Eating Disorders Center at McLean Hospital
Patient Testimonials
Young Woman Finds Health, Happiness Thanks to McLean
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Twenty-four-year-old Meaghan Finn understands “that if you take care of your body, it will take care of you.” But it wasn’t always that way. Just six months ago, Meaghan, at 5'7", weighed only 97 pounds, barely 70 percent of her ideal body weight.
Meaghan has struggled with weight and food issues for years; as a sophomore in high school, she lost 20 pounds in two and a half months. Although she and her family had an inkling something was wrong, it was not until she moved to Boston after college that Meaghan fully realized her “serious control issues around food. I would only eat certain foods at certain times of the day and would never stray beyond that,” she says.
Meaghan knew she needed to address her anorexia and admitted herself to the Klarman Eating Disorders Center, a residential treatment program at McLean. There, she got an “intense reality check. I remember one girl telling me I was so thin I looked like I could die. I didn’t sleep that night,” she recalls.
In her first week at the center, Meaghan was also diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), an illness that often co-exists with eating disorders. With her OCD diagnosis came the realization that her disordered eating went deeper than she thought. “I finally recognized that getting my health back wasn’t something I could do on my own,” she says.
With the support of the center’s highly skilled and compassionate staff, Meaghan worked through many aspects of her illness. Although every stage of treatment—from visiting the hospital cafeteria for the first time to going out on a “pass” with friends—brought feelings of anxiety, Meaghan found strength and comfort in the coping strategies she was learning.
She also benefited from the center’s cognitive behavioral treatment approach. In a body-image group, for example, Meaghan and the other girls perused magazines, ripping out and crumpling up pictures of excessively thin, airbrushed models. “All you could hear in the room was ‘rip, rip, rip,’” she recalls. “By the end of the group, the whole room was full of crumpled-up paper balls. The therapist told us that whenever we have negative thoughts about our bodies, we are supposed to remember that pile of paper.”
Groups like these taught Meaghan to develop an appreciation for her body and for what is good about herself as a person. “Now, when I look in the mirror, I don’t stare at one spot on my body. I see my whole self.”
Today, Meaghan is at a healthy body weight and feeling “great,” she says. “I don’t think so much about what I should or shouldn’t eat anymore. I’m too busy living.”
“Now, when I look in the mirror, I don’t stare at one spot on my body. I see my whole self.”
Providing a new road to recovery
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“I’ve always been insecure about my body,” says 19-year-old Britnie DeMello. “Even at age 5, I remember thinking that I was disgusting.”
In her early teens, Britnie began cycling between anorexia nervosa, a disorder marked by dramatic weight loss, and bulimia nervosa, characterized by bingeing and purging. To look and feel thin, she restricted what she ate, purged and abused laxatives.
While Britnie’s eating habits may have seemed peculiar to friends and family, they thought she was just a “picky eater.” When her laxative use spiraled out of control during her sophomore year of high school, she could no longer hide her secret and she was hospitalized for the first of many times.
In August 2003, after years of seeking lasting relief, Britnie turned to the newly opened Klarman Eating Disorders Center at McLean, a comprehensive program for girls and young women ages 13 to 22. In the program, Britnie, with the help of her therapists, learned to work through the emotions underlying her eating disorders and developed new coping skills, which she still employs.
Today, Britnie is regaining control of her life—she is working and attending college, majoring in psychology. She speaks of recovery from her eating disorders, rather than a cure. “I still have ups and downs but the worst is behind me,” she says with newfound confidence. “Being at McLean turned out to be the best thing for me.”
About McLean Hospital
U.S. News & World Report ranked McLean Hospital first among all freestanding psychiatric hospitals. McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric facility of Harvard Medical School, an affiliate of the Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of Partners HealthCare.