Since last week was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I thought it would be appropriate to recognize this issue that is so prevalent among young women, including on college campuses. Estimates suggest that as many as 10 million females in the United States are currently struggling with an eating disorder, as are 1 million males.
Why do women feel the need to harm their bodies and their health to be skinny? I think the American media is partially to blame for portraying rail-thin, curveless women as desirable. Many women who try to live up to these impossible expectations have to resort to drastic measures to do so. Eating disorders are not just physical; they are emotional and psychological as well. Some women harm their bodies as a way to cope with or avoid events in their lives. It is always important to remember that eating disorders are not simply choices but serious illnesses.
So what can you do if you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder? The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) offers a telephone helpline (800/931-2237) not only for those suffering from an eating disorder but for their friends and family as well. Be supportive of a friend with an eating disorder, and don’t be afraid to enlist others’ help.
How common are eating disorders on your campus, and how has your college community responded to these situations? What can women do to prevent the development of eating disorders among their family members and peers?
This post was written by Brittany Anderton, 2008–09 AAUW Student Advisory Council.
I am glad to bring awareness to this cause. Although I have never struggled with an eating disorder myself, I attend a very small school and have observed the progressive deterioration of some of my peers. It is hard to watch some women at my school take “to go” salads from the cafeteria because they are too ashamed to expose their behavior publically.
Holly makes a good point – if women weren’t so preoccupied with worrying about their body image, imagine what we could accomplish with that extra time. Something to think about.
Thank you for your support of eating disorder awareness week. I especially appreciate your reminding readers that eating disorders are illnesses with powerful emotional and psychological depths.
Too many people seek help for the eating disorder behavior or try to control that behavior on their own without addressing or even believing they need to address the underpinning emotional and psychological aspects. Then they believe they failed because they weren’t strong enough or good enough or dedicated enough to help themselves.
When the emotional and psychological work is accepted as part of the total recovery effort individuals have a much better opportunity to get solidly established on their recovery path.
Again, thank you for supporting EDAW so well.
best regards,
Joanna Poppink, MFT
Los Angeles eating disorder recovery psychotherapist
I recommend Courtney Martin’s book called Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters about how eating disorders can be tied to the perfection syndrome so many young women experience at some point in their lives.
I ran cross country at college my freshman year and we had three girls on the team with diagnosed eating disorders and the rest of us routinely picked @ our food at dinner after practices. Stanford University was nearby and they had one of the top running programs in the nation. We heard rumors that the salads the women team members ate had to be sprayed with nutrients because they barely ate anything else. While our male coach talked to us about eating disorders once or twice, he also praised the thinnest runners (one of whom was anorexic) for looking like “real runners.”
On the less extreme end of body image/eating disorders, I think the fact that Americans are surrounded by diet ads online, on tv, in magazines and often have people around us talking about dieting can make it hard to not think about it too. When I’m with a group of female friends or family members, a conversation is likely to include some mention of a diet or losing weight or “oh i shouldn’t eat this.” When I’m with males, dieting and body image is NEVER the conversation topic and for this reason I sometimes prefer to talk with males over females, especially if we’ll be eating.
In one of my women’s studies classes when we read The Beauty Myth, I was horrified when I thought about the amount of time and energy so many girls and women – including myself – spend EVERY DAY thinking about diets and our looks. What if we didn’t — would we have more energy to spend on activism causes? Would we be more confident? For this reason I try not to think about or talk about diets/body image/counting calories/guilt, but it’s honestly a daily struggle. Just logging into my yahoo mail or facebook account means having diet ads flashed in my face.