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Experts to speak on eating disorders
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The Boise State Health and Wellness Center is sponsoring a series of events on campus this week during Eating Disorder Awareness Week, beginning Feb. 24.
The Health and Wellness Center is bringing expert advice to campus to inform students about eating disorders. Experts say eating disorders typically coincide with underlying emotional issues, stemming from models learned in childhood. Unrealistic models can contribute to emotional distress, identity confusion and cognitive distortion.
Millie Smith, LCSP and an adjunct faculty member at Boise State who specializes in counseling patients with eating disorders, blames the media for inducing eating disorders in young people.
“The media is the number one influence in the onset of an eating disorder,” Smith said. Genetics may also play a strong role in the development of an eating disorder.
Eighty-five percent of eating disorders begin in adolescence between the ages of 10 to 19 years old, and manifest themselves between the ages of 20 to 39.
Eating disorders occur in higher numbers of women than in men. Currently, five percent of women and one percent of men in the United States are diagnosed with eating disorders. These disorders are characterized by guilt about eating, avoidance of social engagements involving food, anxiety about weight and over-exercising.
Aaron Everhard, a psychologist at BSU’s Counseling Services Center agreed with Smith about the media’s influence in the onset of an eating disorder in men.
“Absolutely. If you look at men’s health and fitness magazines, you see this image of the perfect male body, and you see men in gyms working out, trying to attain this perfect body,” Everhard said.
Everhard explained some of the differences between eating disorders in men and women.
“Men do suffer from eating disorders, yet due to the diversity of cultural and social roles, and the expectations placed on men, men tend to hide their eating disorders,” he said.
To classify an eating disorder, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual IV, a tool used for the psychological classification of mental disorders, characterizes anorexia as possession of a distorted body image, an intense fear of fat and a refusal to maintain a normal body weight.
In women, amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation for at least three consecutive months is a symptom in the DSM-IV classification of an eating disorder. Bulimia nervosa has the same DSM-IV criteria, but is defined as the cycle of binging and purging, and the use diet pills and laxatives to control weight.
According to Everhard, DSM-IV does not provide comprehensive evaluation of eating disorders.
“The clients I have treated with food problems generally fall into the area of dysfunctional eating patterns or dysfunctional eating behaviors and not necessarily a DSM-IV classified eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa,” Everhard said.
Eating disorders typically involve eating rituals or restrictive eating patterns that control the person’s life and decisions, impair the person’s daily functions and endanger the person’s physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing.
People with an eating disorder often experience psychological disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, mood and depressive disorders and personality disorders. Individuals with eating disorders are at high risk for suicide, display low self-esteem and may engage in substance abuse. They are also at risk for being in abusive relationships.
People who have an eating disorder are also at risk for developing physical problems including thyroid dysfunction, gastrointestinal dysfunction and stomach problems such as ulcers, heart problems, weakness, dizziness, fatigue and an increase in the risk for bone fractures and osteoporosis.
Lack of food intake suppresses the hypothalamic function, which regulates the hormone cycles and controls sleep, hunger, mood, growth and reproductive processes. In women, these hormonal imbalances can cause amenorrhea. In adolescents, restricted caloric intake and poor nutrition stunts growth.
Smith said Boise State offers hope for people who struggle with bulimia and anorexia.
“An eating disorder is 100 percent recoverable. Recovery is about mind, body and soul,” Smith said.
“A person in recovery needs someone to coach, teach and direct them,” she said.
Theresa Jenkins, The Arbiter
