As you know I was inpatient at Renfrew Florida. There are many great treatment centers out there I just happen to have to oppertunity to go to Renfrew. www.renfrewcenter.org
I have heard many people say that they are scared of going to treatment or just don't have time. The thing I think of, that was made so clear to me is if your dead you won't have time for that stuff anyways. This is serious shit! Chances are you know you need help you just are afraid to get it. I want to encourage you to maybe call and talk to a councelor at a near by treatment center and ask them any questions you may have. I am sure they will be very willing to talk to you and answer any questions honestly.
My experience in treatment is huge to me. I know it saved my life. I have people I met that will forever be close to my heart. Both residents and staff. I went in sick, scared and cranky... everyone understood or at least tried to understand. That was a first for me. I soaked up all the information I could and now I have a much better inderstanding of why I resorted to having an eating disorder. I know from seeing and experiencing it that you can get past this illness. Most people that have go inpatient are the more life threatning cases which mean this treatment is going to be very intense. I won't lie, it was a lot to go through but I feel it made me a much better person and I would not trade it for anything.
I was never in an outpatient setting at a treatment center but do know people who have been. The positives can be; if you have children, trying to go to school, cannot take time from work and others. A huge negative can be "trying to cheat the system." You go home at night and are responsible for a meal on your own and to also not get rid of it. I don't know about you but if I were being honest at the time I was hospitalized I would have never done that on my own. For people who have a lot of home support or are not sunk in as far possibly could do this. Don't get me wrong I am not saying it is a bad thing to do outpatient I just know I couldn't have been so reliable.
After inpatient treatment they will set up a treatment team. This will consist of a Medical Doctor, Psychiatrist, Therapist and also a Nutritionist. I have a treatment team who I am curently seeing and have helped keep me accountable but also tried to work on the core problems I am trying to cope with. If I didn't have this accountability or these people to talk to when things got crazy it would be impossible for me to stay on top of my eating disorder. After treatment I felt I didn't need any of this and was cured but it only took a few days for me to realize how hard it is to countinue to fight after treatment and how important it is to have people there to help.
Normally when a problem is first noticed the first step is that you go see a therapist or some other specialist. Sometimes if you are willing to work on your problems you will not need to go to in-patient treatment but other times your therapist can be the one to determine if it is vital to your recovery.
If you live in South Carolina here is a link to some wonderful professionals in the Upstate. http://www.eatingdisorderssc.com
Anywhere else you can try www.something-fishy.org or www.psychologytoday.com