While solid data on the incidence among these groups are lacking, one person in 10 who seeks treatment at eating disorder clinics is male.

So those, along with a smattering of back-pain programs, sleep disorder clinics and wellness programs, are the ones many hospitals are advertising - with dramatic effects.

Then I went to an eating disorder clinic in Arizona for intense therapy for three months.

Others who seek help at eating disorder clinics chew their food and then spit it out, or count calories compulsively, or are unable to eat in public.

A parade of help seekers arrive at eating disorder clinics distressed by symptoms not quite severe enough to meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia or bulimia.

In recent years, however, more blacks and other minorities have been seeking help from eating disorder clinics.

Children in mental disorder clinics were more likely to report abuse than those in mental disability clinics.

They commonly work alongside clinical psychologists in settings such as inpatient and outpatient mental health, pain management clinics, eating disorder clinics, and child development services.

Researchers also point out that ever more people are consulting sleep experts and sleep disorder clinics complaining of constant fatigue.

"I find out you're purging again, I'll make four weeks at that eating disorder clinic look like a pleasure cruise to St. Croix."