WHYY
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The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders’ Philadelphia Spring Lane location
Twenty-year-old dancer Alyssa Wendel first suffered from anorexia when she was in high school. Dancing was the way she coped throughout college, but when the pandemic first hit and dancing was no longer an option, she was forced once again to face her eating disorder.
Being sent home from school, dealing with the isolation and lockdown restrictions sent her into a tailspin, Wendel said. She suffered from disordered eating prior to the pandemic, she said, but “that’s where my eating disorder took hold of that and was like, ‘OK, so this is like the perfect time.’”