On the seventh day of Christmas, the ED gave to me...

..."Seven treatment sessions?? Or eight?? Nine??"...


When we met up with that stern private psychiatrist a few weeks before Christmas 2009, I'd written out a couple of pages of notes and questions.

These were the questions:

QUESTIONS

• What kind of therapy does he need and with whom?
• How long will it take / how many sessions?
• Obviously Ben’s well being is uppermost in our minds but because this is private, we need an idea of how much it may cost?

You see, back then, I honestly thought someone could tell me approximately how many sessions Ben would need to 'cure' of the eating disorder.

I thought a skilled specialist practitioner would be able simply examine him, diagnose him and say: "Hmn... I think we can do it in seven or eight weekly sessions", or whatever.

I really did.

How could I have known that, two full years on from then, we would STILL be seeing our treatment team. Thankfully, being the UK, the CAMHS treatment team is NHS-funded, so we don't have to pay.

We only had to pay for the private 'treatment' Ben received as a 'stop gap' while we were on the CAMHS waiting list.

Seeing as we only had £500 a year available from our medical insurance to cover mental health issues, I have no idea what we would have done without the free NHS treatment.

Over the past two years we've had a crippling recession to deal with - and Ben's dad was out of work.

CAMHS and I may not have always seen eye to eye over the months we've been with them, but I am eternally thankful this Christmas season that the treatment was free and unlimited.