Eating Disorders: Important Ways Colleges are Fighting Eating Disorders
by Sue Scheff on Aug 30, 2011
Self-image: What is your teen thinking?
Eating disorders are prevalent on college campuses, although they may not be obvious. Those who suffer from eating disorders often live with their problem in silence, not asking for help and blowing off attempts to intervene. But the fact is that 25% of college-aged women binge and purge for weight management, and 86% of eating disorder sufferers report that their body image problems began by age 20. At the same time, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, making them incredibly dangerous.
Many colleges and universities are shedding light on the problem of eating disorders on campus, working to promote a healthy body image and provide support for students who are struggling with eating disorder issues. Through awareness weeks, special projects, research, and more, these colleges are doing their part to fight back against eating disorders and ensure that students get the support they need to maintain a healthy body image.
1. Life size Barbie: Plenty of people joke about what Barbie might look like as a real person, but one student in New York actually made a life-size Barbie doll to illustrate the icon’s ridiculous proportions. The doll was introduced at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York as part of their first National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Barbie was just one part of the school’s campaign, which included covering mirrors around campus with facts on eating disorders to spread awareness.
2. Alternative treatments for eating disorders: Researchers at the University of Buffalo are taking a look at unconventional solutions for eating disorder interventions. Although they believe that conventional solutions do work, they believe that they can be augmented with new ideas. Some of these new solutions include what’s known as “active work,” like breathing techniques, yoga, and relaxation. Researcher Catherine Cook-Cottone believes that these activities can help those who are at risk or struggling with an eating disorder learn to develop a healthy sense of self and self-care.
3. Healthy body image fashion show: As a part of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week each year, The University of Washington holds A Fashion Show: Everybody, Every Body, which invites everyone in the UW community to model, regardless of size. Past events have included women from size 0 to 26, and promote the awareness and importance of a healthy body image. Everyone is encouraged to audition to become a model and walk on the runway, helping attendees and those involved to realize that “not everyone looks like a human clothes hanger.” Director Josephine Garcia hopes that “people start to love themselves and love their bodies the way they are,” especially their models, who she hopes “get a sense of heightened self-confidence” from the experience of walking the runway. In addition to modeling, the event includes a panel discussion on eating disorders, documentaries and readings of poems and other works discussing body image.
4. Healthy living awareness: At the University of Alabama, students and staff hold Body Appreciation Week in conjunction with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. During this time, the university focuses on healthy living and preventing eating disorders. Like the University of Washington, the University of Alabama also has a healthy body image fashion show, featuring women and men of all sizes and body types on the runway. The University of Alabama also spreads awareness with tables sharing information about eating disorders and where to get help, as well as bins that students can use to donate their too-small “skinny jeans” to charity-accepting instead to “wear jeans that fit the real you.”
5. Harvard removed calorie information: For those who suffer from or are at risk for eating disorders, calorie counts and other nutritional information can be more harmful than helpful, placing too much emphasis on calories and food values. Harvard University recognized this challenge, removing nutritional information index cards from dining halls after students and parents raised their concerns about the impact of this information. Although this move ensures that students don’t have to stare down the values of what they’re eating each time they sit down for a meal at the cafeteria, students do still have the information available if they’d like to make informed nutritional decisions. The information is available from kiosks in the dining halls, along with forums and information sessions promoting healthy eating from Dining Services, in which students learn about the benefits of foods rather than caloric statistics.
6. Sorority Body Image Program: Girls who might stereotypically be regarded as shallow and vain are proving themselves to be quite the opposite with the Sorority Body Image Program. Created by psychologist Carolyn Backer, students and sorority members at Trinity University in Texas have come together to share eating disorder prevention on their college campus and beyond. Through sessions, sorority sisters are asked to challenge the “thin ideal,” considering how much it costs to pursue that ideal and even practicing role play to debunk the idea. Homework assignments include standing in front of a mirror (in private) “wearing as little clothing as possible” and spending time identifying positive qualities. The program has had a positive impact and research indicates that the sorority sisters have truly changed their perception of the thin ideal. This program is so positive and effective that one sorority, Tri Delta, is taking it beyond Trinity University and going national, hoping to impact sorority sisters and students across the US.
7. Recovery art at the University of the Sciences: The University of the Sciences celebrates Eating Disorders Awareness Week, highlighting eating disorders and promoting a positive body image for students. Although many colleges hold awareness weeks for eating disorders, this university’s awareness week involves creativity. They are displaying art work created by women in recovery from eating disorders, in a show, “The Art of Recovery.” The art is therapeutic for the women who create it, and inspiring for those who view and appreciate it. Other activities for Eating Disorders Awareness week at University of the Sciences include “Rate Your Plate,” in which a dietitian rates meal selections, and Mirrorless Monday, covering mirrors with white paper and positive body image messages.
8. The Body Project: Bradley University, like many others, has a web presence devoted to preventing and treating eating disorders. But unlike most colleges, whose web presence doesn’t go much farther than explaining the problem of eating disorders and referring readers to resources for help, Bradley University’s resource has plenty of information and literature for sufferers to learn from online. Inspired by Dove’s campaign for Real Beauty, Bradley students posed for photos shared on campus, and on The Body Project website that reflect the human body in a variety of forms. The website also highlights upcoming and past programs and activities that celebrate a healthy body image, as well as lots of statistics, photo comparisons, and other great resources that help promote a healthy body image for Bradley University students and visitors to the website.
9. Fighting the thin ideal: Dr. Meghan Butryn, a research assistant professor at Drexel University, is working on a study: Eating Disorders Prevention: An Effectiveness Trial for At-Risk College Students. The study is being conducted at Drexel University, Oregon Research Institute, and the University of Texas at Austin, with other branch research sites as well. Through this study, individuals with a high risk for developing eating disorders are identified, and work toward braking down the internalization of “the thin ideal” while engaging in group sessions. In addition to the sessions, participants complete other activities such as writing letters to adolescent girls about the thin ideal, all of which aims to change their perspective on the thin ideal. Butryn hopes to lower the onset rate of eating disorders for participants.
10.Project Heal: Two college students, who met at an eating disorder treatment center, came together to create Project Heal. The project is designed to give those who are suffering from eating disorders the money they need to complete the expensive treatment. These college students have done fundraisers, merchandise sales, and donations, sending six girls to get much-needed treatment for free. In addition to financial support, the who have started a support group, bringing parents impacted by eating disorders together.
11. Penn State’s healthy dining hall: Many schools have worked to make their dining choices fit into a healthy body image lifestyle. Penn State is no exception, going so far as to convert one of its all-you-can eat dining halls into a “healthy dining hall.” In this hall, Penn state has banished fried food and simple carbohydrates including white bread. The smartest move in this new dining hall is not the food choices, however. Rather, the key is in how they are presented. The dining hall features a model portion plate for each meal, visually displaying what a healthy meal at the dining hall might look like, including proteins, grains, and fruits and vegetables. This model portion plate can help those who struggle from eating disorders better understand what healthy eating looks like, and make it easier for them to consume realistic portions.
Source: Accredited Online Colleges
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Tags: Body Image, Eating Disorders, Parenting, parenting advice, Parenting Blogs, Parenting Resources, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Sue Scheff, Teen Self Imagge
15 Alarming Facts About Eating Disorders in College
by Sue Scheff on Jul 01, 2011
Eating disorders especially end up on the receiving end of frequent stereotyping and misunderstanding — a very dangerous phenomenon, considering how they can quickly turn fatal when left unchecked. College students comprise the condition’s largest demographic, so educating both students and the society they inhabit is crucial for their health, happiness and safety. By no means should one take this article as anything even remotely approaching medical advice. Rather, use it as an introduction to a few facts about bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder and EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). From here, make further inquiries into the realities faced by sufferers and the people who love them. Making an effort to empathize with their plight might very well save lives someday.
It’s not just women who suffer: Eating disorders are often stereotyped as the exclusive realm of the ladyfolk — a dangerous mindset preventing male victims from receiving necessary psychotherapy. In reality, between 1% and 7% of college-age men suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder or EDNOS. But the numbers might actually sit higher than that, as stigmas unfairly painting the diseases as inherently feminine prevent them from admitting the problem and seeking out the mental help needed to survive.- The staggering majority of female college students diet: Ninety-one percent in fact, regardless of whether or not they genuinely need to be concerned about their weight. Not all diets are eating disorders, nor do all eating disorders manifest themselves as extreme dieting. Such conditions don’t always necessarily stem from a desire to be thin, of course, but overlap does occur. Some cases — though in no way every — do begin life as obsessive dieting, so it is relevant to look at statistics reflecting this.
- College women are even more vulnerable to eating disorders than one would think: By this point, most people are aware that women between the ages of 17 and 24 are the most likely to be treated for and diagnosed with an eating disorder. In the general public, the statistic posits about 15% of this demographic suffers. But once college factors into the equation, it shoots up to 40%. Hardly surprising, considering the significant amount of stress involved — especially in cases where eating disorders manifest as a coping mechanism.
- It’s often comorbid with other disorders: In college and the real world alike, eating disorders rarely wreak havoc alone. Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and EDNOS usually co-exist with depression, anxiety, substance abuse and/or compulsive issues. Oftentimes, the symptoms associated with these conditions are signs of something larger and more serious at play than just problems with diet and nutrition. Social stigmas against anything above a size 6 are only a very minute facet of a far more complex mental health problem.
- Relationships impact eating disorders: And not just those where one or more partners spout off abusive rhetoric about body shape and size, either. Individuals in unhealthy relationships, whether they be overly clingy or outright physically traumatic, run a much higher risk of suffering from eating disorders than their peers enjoying more stable ones. The depression and anxiety associated with such unfortunate arrangements can trigger these conditions as a means of calming and forgetting the issue at hand.
Sexual assault and rape victims are more likely to develop eating disorders: This correlation exists outside of college campuses, however, but the demographic most vulnerable to eating disorders also happens to be more likely to end up sexually assaulted and raped. Thanks to an unforgiving society that shames and guilt trips female and male victims alike, anxiety and depression run rampant. So it makes sense that eating disorders would also plague them at a higher rate, as bulimia, anorexia and the like provide immediate (albeit unhealthy and nonviable) comfort for a persistent problem.- Binging and purging may correlate with previous suicide attempts: At least one study suggests that eating disorder victims engaging in a binge-and-purge pattern are more likely to have previously attempted suicide. Those with anorexia are more likely to suffer from suicidal thoughts. Again, a broader study sheds considerable light on the experiences of a smaller demographic. Because of the staggering amount of college students crushed beneath eating disorders, it makes sense that many of them would suffer from the accompanying suicidal ideas and behaviors as well.
- Nutrition facts can actually trigger victims:Newsweek ran an article about eating disorders on campus in 2009, opening with a particularly poignant perspective most people — in college or otherwise — might never consider. For the eating disordered, seeing campuses publicly display nutrition facts run the risk of triggering trauma during the recovery period. Those whose conditions manifest themselves as obsessive dieting and calorie-counting are especially vulnerable, as exposure to such information reminds them of their destructive obsession. Harvard University removed calorie count cards from its dining halls out of respect for its disordered students.
- A staggering amount of victims vomit, resort to extreme diets and/or use laxatives: Whether suffering from bulimia, anorexia, EDNOS or some combination thereof, 38% of college students (both male and female) have forced vomiting, used laxatives and/or extreme vomiting in order to lose weight. Researchers think an increased emphasis on combating obesity might influence their harsh decisions, although plenty of other issues — such as the previously-mentioned depression, anxiety and sexual violence victimhood factor into it as well.
- A fringe eating disorder movement actively encourages the disease: Neither the Pro-Ana nor Pro-Mia movements typically go out and recruit members, but they do dangerously encourage disordered eating habits. Most — but not all — adherents are either in college or of college age, and the philosophy paints the truly horrifying disease as a lifestyle choice to be accepted rather than a mental illness to be treated. Communities both online and off trade “thinspiration” pictures, advice and encouragement for the fastest (and oftentimes most devastating) weight loss tips. It’s an extremely destructive mindset, one colleges must take more seriously and address more often.
- Binge eating disorder is a real thing: Most individuals and organizations typically think of bulimia and anorexia when the subject of eating disorders crop up. But binge eating disorder — an often overlooked member of the family — can also cause serious problems during the college years (and beyond). Stemming from the exact same anxiety, depression and stress as conditions seeking thinness, BED instead involves taking in too much food as a coping mechanism.
Twenty is the most common age of onset: Around 86% of bulimics estimate they first experienced symptoms at age 20. Between the ages of 16 and 20, the number drops to 43%. By freshmen year, between 4.5% and 18% of female and .4% of male students start classes with a history of bulimia, compared to 1% for women with anorexia. Once again, the reasons behind why this happens are as varied as the victims themselves, though the dangers remain the same.- Anorexia and bulimia kill more than people realize: Between 10% and 25% of anorexia patients die because of complications arising from the condition. The full recovery rate of eating disorders in general sits at a sadly low 60%, with 20% only partially coming back and 20% never healing at all — or making only negligible progress.
- Race might have an effect on how eating disorders manifest: Research published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders noted at least one difference in the way weight loss-related eating disorders occur in white and African-American female college students. Many members of the latter demographic typically struggled with real weight and size problems and suffered worse the more they absorbed themselves in mainstream society. Their Caucasian counterparts rarely experienced onset because of a preexisting weight condition. Both, however, frequently exhibited the signs and symptoms of depressive, anxiety or compulsive issues alongside their eating disorders.
- Online intervention might be a valid prevention option: For the harried, college-aged eating disordered, an online psychiatric regimen might very well pique their recovery. Developed at Stanford University, the online program sought out high-risk women — specifically, college-aged women — and effectively prevented many from slipping into anorexia, bulimia or EDNOS. Participants with a BMI at 25 or over did not develop any eating disorder symptoms after 2 years, compared to 11.9% of their peers. Amongst women already suffering the early stages, 14% ended up diagnosed with an eating disorder within 2 years, compared to 30% of nonparticipants. The program, consisting of reading materials, moderated discussions and daily journals, might very well fulfill a valuable role on college campuses and beyond.
Source: Online Universities
Tags: Anorexia, At Risk Teens, Binge Eating, Body Image, Bulimia, Eating Disorders, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Sue Scheff
Building Teen Self-Esteem: Dove Movement is Inspiring Teen Girls All Over!
by Sue Scheff on Sep 09, 2010
As the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem unfolds, there is a powerful question that is being passed around and one that most people have a variety of answers for. Whether you are 18 or 58 or even 78, the answers contain lessons from experience.
What do you wish you had known at 13 years old?
Here are some of the responses from the Dove Movement website as well as from Twitter:
- Play more, worry less!
- My father really was smart but at 13 I knew it all.
- Enjoy being young/don’t wish to be older yet.
- That the abuse I was suffering had nothing to do with how bad I was but how bad the perpetrator was.
- That being myself was the best way to be ‘cool!’
These are only a few of the fantastic responses the Dove Movement has received. For those in South Florida, one of the issues that is often heard, is about using sun-screen more generously. In your teen years many are more concerned about their tan (self-image) than the damage the sun is doing to your skin. In later years, as the skin starts to wrinkle, it can be a lesson we wish we had known (or listened to our parents).
The Dove Movement for Self-Esteem is being sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc. and Girls Scouts, Dove is marching out a campaign to help teen girls have a brighter future and step into their own skin by believing in themselves.
Tags: Body Image, Dove Movement, parenting advice, Parenting Blogs, Parenting Resources, Parenting Teens, Teen Help, Teen Self Esteem
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