SM: So what happened? What did you do?
Lindsay: By the summer going into my junior year of high school I had lost over thirty-five pounds [making her 5’2” and around 73 pounds]. My mom changed my therapist and went in with me. I remember the therapist sitting there telling me, “If you don’t change your ways in the next month you are going to die.”

I think that’s when the notion of putting me in a full treatment facility was put into [my mom’s] head.

SM: Did you go to the treatment facility voluntarily?
Lindsay: Because I was under 18 I didn’t have a choice. I remember laying on my bed and my mom saying “You know, you should probably go to this place.” At that point I was so exhausted in life I was willing to give it a shot because I had nothing left to lose. And I remember feeling almost a little bit of relief going “Okay, I’ll do it.”

SM: What was the treatment facility like? How long were you there?
Lindsay: I was placed in a treatment facility for three months. I was subjected to six meals a day followed by therapy sessions of every kind. I wasn’t allowed to have any personal time or freedom, or talk to anyone outside of the facility, except my parents for fifteen minutes a night. All of my belongings were searched and locked up and all the rooms had alarm systems to alert the counselors every time you walked in or out of your room. You were not allowed to go to the bathroom by yourself.

I remember walking in there and thinking, “These girls are so much thinner than me. They have problems. I don’t have a problem. What are you making me do?”