12 - The Michigan Daily - Friday,_February 9, 2001 FRIDAY Focus -~ 4 U' i ncreases disorder awareness services A lack of staff members qualified to treat eating disorders at the University has inspired administrators to take steps toward increasing the number of resources available to stu- dents. Robert Winfield, interim director of University Health Ser- vices, said an experienced staff is necessary to serve the wide range of eating disorders present on campus. "Eating difficulties range from obesity or frequent dieting to the more difficult issues of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa," Winfield said. Winfield said there is a strong demand on campus for eating disorder services. University President Lee Bollinger's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues and the Center for the Education of Women made a request to Provost Nancy Cantor to examine the issue. Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper formed a multi-disciplinary task team which reviewed the lit- erature and current programs available on campus. The team College environm fo stersvuInerabili * By Jacquelyn Nixon, Daily Staff Reporter 4 was comprised of Counseling and Psychological Services staff and student representatives. The team presented their report to PACWI and CEW in mid-January. The report con- cluded the University needed additional staff with experience in the various spectrum of eating disorders. "In the long run UHS, CAPS and the Division of Student Affairs need to formulate a broader scope of eating disorders," he said. Task team co-chair and UHS health educator Carol Tucker said the current services on campus provide temporary care. "Eating issues are something which needs treatment and intervention can be fairly intensive," Tucker said. Winfield said within the next two to five years the actions in the report should be completed. "The first step is a job posting for a half-time health educa- tor this semester who will work on prevention issues and get- ting people into treatment," Winfield said. "The second half-time person will work on getting people into treatment." UHS also plans to launch a Website detailing the resources available by the fall semester. "We intend to improve the services available to students," Winfield said. "We think we need to do more and we are determined to do more." Currently students who come into UHS with an eating dis- order are assigned to a member of the clinical staff who is familiar with such disorders. Then the individual would be referred to counseling services and a nutritionist. If long-tern psychiatric care was necessary, the student would be referred to a community expert for treatment over a period of years, Winfield said. A service often used by UHS, CAPS offers short-term ther- apy, said clinical psychologist Stacey Pearson. "We have a comprehensive-eating patterns assessment," she said. "We look at family history, anything that might be con- nected with the disorder and we work with a physician and nutritionist." 0 * By Jacquelyn Nixon, Daily Staff Reporter * LSA senior Monika Offerman lost 45 pounds in a period of six months because of an eating disorder. Offer- man, who said living in a sorority con- stantly forced her to compare herself to other women and accelerated her condi- tion, is an example of one of the leading possible causes of eating disorders: Environment. "At the dinner table, you see how little someone eats," she said. "At Michigan there are so many skinny girls. In order to fit in, many girls mimic the other girls to be a part of a group so they can be good friends with them.:' Robert Win field, interim director of "Every student on University Health nected to someon Services, also iden- with eating." tified environments such as. residence Clini halls and other group living conditions as places where students are vulnerable to developing eating disorders. Registered dietician Caroline Mandel said several male and female athletes suffer from disordered eating. "Eating disorders don't discriminate," Mandel said. "It's not known whether athletic participation causes eating dis- orders or whether an eating disordered lifestyle promotes athletic participa- tion." Mandel, the University's director of sports nutrition, said self-esteem and the move to a college environment can be a cause for changes in eating habits. LSA sophomore Courtney Fessenden said there is pressure to stay fit, yet for 'busy college students it is difficult to always eat balanced meals. Mandel said eating disorders are about control and coping. "Eating disorders are not about food. Sometimes an injury, parents divorcing or a significant loss can be a trigger," Mandel said. A drastic loss in weight is evident in athletes with eating disorders, Mandel said. With continued training there is usually a decrease in athletic perfor- mance and sometimes a decrease in muscle mass. "You don't want a gymnast tumbling if she's hypoglycemic," Mandel said. Some athletes fear getting help because of the possibility of not being able to compete. "Sometimes they can continue par- ticipation," Mandel said. "Sometimes if there are health reasons why it is unsafe for them to participate, they our campus is con- e who has an issue -Stacey Pearson cal Psychologist, CAPS may have to cut back on exercise in order to regain weight and improve nutrition." Once an athlete is identified to have an eating disorder, a team of support - the patient, a therapist, a dietitian, a physi- cian and often a coach or trainer - is formed in a manner unique to each ath- lete, Mandel said. Counseling and Psychological Ser- vices clinical psychologist Stacey Pear- son said students are the key to intervening with friends who suffer from eating disorders. "Every student on our campus is connected to someone who has an issue with eating, whether they know it or not, and we want to reach those who can serve as advocates," Pearson said. Offerman said intervention came in the form of her sorority sisters, who witnessed the effects of the disorder. "People here who don't know you - it's hard for them to see the changes. Girls that are with you in a sorority can assess these things," Offerman said. "It's also a good thing in the long run - with all that sup- port it was addressed." Treatments work; recovery difficult * By Elizabeth Kassab, Daily Staff Reporter * For decades experts have debated whether individuals can ever completely conquer their eating disorders. Randall Flanery, professor of community and family medicine at St. Louis University, said there are two ways to approach the treatment of eating disorders. One view maintains that they are addictions, similar to alcoholism. This school of thought "sees it as a lifelong problem that you're going to have to confront for your entire life," Flanery said. This outlook can be very discouraging for people, who think "I'm going to be like this for the rest of my life," Flanery said. They get "trapped in this and never seem to get out' The second view is that eating disorders are a learned behavior that can be unlearned. "From that perspective it is possible for people to fully recover," said Flanery. "Yes, they can be cured," agreed David S. Rosen, a clini- cal associate professor and chief of the University of Michi- gan's section of teenage and young adult health. . "I have a strong belief that eating disorders need multi- disciplinary treatment," Rosen said. Rosen focuses on mental health, nutrition and physical health in treating eating disorders. They "are not just the emotional problems of hysteri- cal girls," Rosen said. They are legitimate medical problems that are more complex than eating too much or too little. "Food is not the issue," said Kristin Fusco, founder and director of Healing Through Whole Foods, a Birmingham- based business focused on healthy eating. "There is a deep emotional hunger that rigid eaters, compulsive overeaters, dieters, anorexics and bulimics are trying to satisfy. The emptiness they feel inside is temporarily satiated with or [by] withholding food. In both instances, there is the funda- mental belief that 'I am not enough.' ... Food becomes the substitute for feeling better, for substituting the love we so desire." Recovery is a long and challenging process, but it is pos- sible, Rosen said. Patients have to fit all of the American Psychiatric Association's criteria to "Food is not theiue e be diagnosed with an eat- -sFoo deipn oth isnu hner." ing disorder. The majori- is a deep emotional hunger.' tofpeople who have an -rsi uc ty ofeg polemwhibaiFounder and director of Healing Through whole Foods - some characteristics of eating disorders but do not have clinical anorexia or bulimia, Rosen said. "Bona fide eating disorders are fairly rare;' said Universi- ty of South Florida psychology Prof. J. Kevin Thompson. He estimated they apply to between 3 percent and 5 percent of the population. Rosen agreed that eating disorders are relatively scarce but noted the rate rises when looking exclusively at women, especially teenagers or young women. - "It's higher still in successful college-age women" Rosen said. He speculates the rate may stand as high as 14 percent of that particular group. Joanne Chopak, a health educator at Georgia Southern University, said successful college women are likely to strive for perfection. She said that while this is an asset in some areas, it is dangerous when coupled with an overwhelming desire to attain the "perfect" body. "No matter what weight they get down to, they're never satisfied," Chopak said. Their perception of their own body may be distorted so that they see themselves as fat even when they appear painfully thin to others, she said. The number of patients who exhibit some character- istics of eating disorders but "do not reach the thresh- old" of a true eating disorder is startlingly high, Rosen said. "For every patient who has anorexia, there are 10 who almost do. For every patient who has bulimia, there are 20 who almost do,"he speculated. "They may not fulfill the diagnostic criteria, but they may be weight-preoccupied," Chopak said. People with eating problems who fall short of clini- cally defined disorders are in a perilous position, Rosen said. "They are able to fly under the radar and go unno- ticed." 0: 0 0 0' PhotoIllustration by DAVID KATZ/Daily Millions of people around the world find the reflection that confronts them in the mirror is unsatisfactory while others around them see nothing wrong with their appearance. Attitudes reflectsociety * By Elizabeth Kassab, Daily Staff Reporter * induc ac okscnt 4f~s~ and voown struggle with t dinord rs and borderline; con it ons. m"s tf -f Arncricaivn oen arc o'i a -iet on any I niefican t l re o trr C n 4 i llirnde l a er nr re~atd p ut yea a pAjoa : of women saa the;y °oui f4-Mr L*,ithin E) ha any r g pie PW; w r r s le%~ss O + avr g AmeOa wo ,:Xm iMe i4 h23l ~ ei ,gi + Constant pressure from the images and attitudes that dominate society fuel the futile quest for the 'perfect' body and, in some cases, cultivate eating disorders. "Blame it on Barbie, blame it on the media - those are the easy targets," University of South Florida psychology Prof. J. Kevin Thompson said. But some of the most powerful influences on eating disorders may not be as removed or imper- sonal, Thompson said. "What we're looking at now is the influence of parents versus peers versus the media. All these influences are important. We haven't gotten to the point of saying one is more important than the oth- ers -yet" Comments and pressure from family and peers to look a certain way influence how people act, and the media reinforces these attitudes. For several generations now there has been no escape from the images of 'perfect' bodies that pervade daily life, Thompson said. "Parents who grew up in this culture of thinness then I'm popular, attractive, successful, self-disci- plined," Flanery said. The flip side is pessimistic -"No one will like me if I'm not thin." Thompson said magazines insist on filling their pages with thin models because they contend no one will buy them if they don't. "Who knows if that's true or not because no one's ever tested it," Thompson said. Thompson said he feels there is a "movement toward getting away from the sickly anorexic look to the more healthy look." Olympic athlete Marion Jones posed as a cover girl, but Thompson said her muscular physique is still unnatural. Eating disorders are largely a "product of indus- trialized societies," Flanery said. The reason is fairly simple, according to Chopak. "If you live in a country where food is scarce then they're not anorexic. They're just starv- ing,' she said. But that's not to say developing countries don't have problems with eating disorders. "Increasingly they do, and it's because we're exporting our neuroticism to other countries," Thompson said. "The general consensus is that the western influence, when it pervades other cul- tures, creates this desire for being thinner," he said. He offered the Fiji islands as one example. Tra- I I s . '. I I