re: Anorexic woman got strangers to fund her 'treatment'

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I also don't see it as a disease, but something that they did to themselves

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Rest assured, essentially the entire medical community disagrees with you. It's even got its own diagnosis in both DSM IV and V. I haven't read the previous ones, but I'll go out on a limb and say that it's been in all of them. It's not as simple as a choice in pretty much all non-hunger strikers. It's the manifestation of true mental illness, which is no matter to be dismissed as "poor choices" despite its outward appearance as such.

There's much, much more to it. I'm very glad that your friends were able to take care of it on their own. That's in line with a very mild disorder. Or, in many cases, an eating disorder stemming from a dysmorphic body image, or even just the idea that they aren't pretty enough. If you look at your OP images, it's fairly easy to see that the woman isn't just thin- she's sickly. No one, short of Ghandi and a handful of others who were making statements for deeply rooted beliefs, are capable of doing that to themselves.

The cost of treatment centers is fairly outrageous. Usually insurance doesn't pick up inpatient rehabs until a fairly sizable chunk has been paid in cash. It's something I hate. If this woman is uninsured, this isn't a particularly outrageous number, all things considered, for a treatment program. I'm more outraged at the cash cost of such a program than people crowd-sourcing it.