Eating Issues Awareness Day teaches healthy lifestyles to students
Students have the opportunity to learn more about everything from anorexia nervosa to obesity on Eating Issues Awareness Day.
Utah State University’s Counseling Center will be hosting this day as part of the national awareness week.
National awareness week comes at the end of February every year. However, Utah State University places its main objectives on just one day, Tuesday, to keep awareness focused and from getting spread out, said Roxanne Brown, peer counselor.
“We hope to bring about awareness for everyone by educating students on unhealthy patterns,” Brown said.
Free screenings will be available for students who wish to find out if they have an eating disorder.
There will be a panel discussion where information about eating disorders will be shared with students. The discussion will include ways of helping themselves or someone they know who has an eating disorder.
A person who once experienced an eating disorder, a nutritionist, a representative from the psychology department and a therapist, will be the panelists.
A registered dietitian will speak in the TSC Auditorium 6 to 7 p.m.
Charlotte Scott graduated from USU in 1987.
She is currently working at McKay Dee Hospital as a clinical dietitian. She also counsels people with eating disorders.
The main objectives the Center hopes to fulfill is creating awareness about what an eating disorder is and how to get help.
Low self-esteem and how an eating disorder can evolve from that are topics that will be addressed, Nalder said.
“There is a misconception out there that if you have an eating disorder now, you have it for life,” Nalder said. “That is not true, there is help.”
In addition to the other activities, there will be a table set up in the Hub for answering questions students may have.
A video will play on the first floor of the TSC called “Slim Hopes.”
The video addresses body image in the media by showing how people are influenced at a young age that they have to have a perfect body or they won’t be loved.
Though this week is to help people with eating disorders, people who need the help usually do not attend – usually their roommates or loved ones come for information on how they can help, said Karma Nalder,
chair of the Awareness Week and peer counselor.
In the past, Eating Awareness Day has had a turnout of about 40 people. The Counseling Center hopes to increase this number, because everyone should have the chance to be educated, Nalder said.
“No one is ever alone. There is always hope,” Nalder said.
This day is a part of an ongoing process the Counseling Center has to help students with problems. The therapists who work in the center help students at any time. There are also peer counselors who help individual students with relaxation techniques, building assertiveness, handling anger and dealing with anxiety.
The Center will also have a pregnancy support group supporting women who are pregnant now, have had an adoption in the past or have been pregnant.
The service is free to students with seven or more credits, because of funding from students’ tuition.
The Counseling Center also keeps everything confidential unless it is about something damaging to the person who confides or someone else.
The Counseling Center also helps the Womens’ Center with its awareness to students about violence.
Although eating disorders are hard to determine, there are signs.
If a person over-exercises or is obsessed with how he or she looks, that is a sign of an eating disorder, said Brown.
Excessive body-building is also a sign of someone with an eating disorder.
The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
People with anorexia restrict the calories they intake and intentionally starve themselves for long amounts of time enabling them to loose 15 percent of their body weight.
People with bulimia often binge eat.
They then purge themselves by either throwing up their food, fasting or excessively exercising, according to the Counseling Center’s pamphlet, “Do Dou Have an Eating Disorder,” written by Harold A. Frost, Ph.D.
“It is almost impossible to attain the perfect body,” Nalder said. “When eating disorders come about for a person, that person almost can’t get thin enough.”
Any student who needs help or knows someone who needs help with an eating disorder can stop by the Counseling Center in the TSC, Room 306, or call at 797-1012.