TresSugar

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Better Body Image

TresSugar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:00:25 PST

Since it's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, NEDA ambassador and best-selling author Jenni Schaefer is sharing her insights with us. Yesterday Jenni told us that although she struggled with serious eating disorders for years, she thinks recovery gave her a better body image than she could have ever hoped for. She said: "I spent years talking to a therapist about the size of my thighs. Normal women out there they don't have that luxury, they don't get those tools." So I asked her to share ways we can all improve our body image.

Focus on what your body does, not what it looks like. Jenni says: "Rather than always concentrating on what my body looks like, I shifted my focus to what my body does. I started focusing on how lucky I am to have legs that can hike up a mountain, rather than thinking 'wow my legs are so big.' Instead, we should appreciate what our bodies do. Especially with women, our bodies are so amazing. We can bear children. If we started shifting our focus on what our body does and not what it looks like - that was big for me."
Replace negative body image with life experiences. Jenni explains: "Realize that your body is just a vehicle for life. I've heard people say it's like an earth suit. It's what you get to wear to walk around and experience the world. Instead of staying in my apartment and hating my body and wrapping myself up in sweats and big blankets and hiding from the world, I started taking off those things, putting on a swimsuit, and going swimming with my friends.
"I was replacing the negative shame I had for wearing a swimsuit, with the life experience of getting a swimsuit, putting it on, and jumping in the pool. At first, women, and men, need to know, they're going to feel uncomfortable. If they hate their body and they put on a swim suit and go in the water, they'll probably still hate their body. But if you do it slowly over time that experience will become fun and joyful that you'll stop hating your body so much. Bad body image is like a prison, it keeps people trapped in their minds and in their houses, literally."

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: The Thin Ideal

TresSugar — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:00:55 PST

Since it's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, NEDA ambassador and best-selling author Jenni Schaefer is sharing her insights with us. After struggling with anorexia and bulimia, Jenni finally divorced her eating disorder. Here are Jenni's thoughts on how society plays a role in eating disorders.

How much does society contribute to an eating disorder and how much is it an individual's issue? Leading researchers on eating disorders often say: genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger. Certain people are born with certain personality traits that can lead to an eating disorder. Some of those traits are compulsivity, high anxiety, perfectionism.

I was born with all of those traits. And then environment pulling the trigger, for me that was mostly being in our society with the media and with the focus on the thin ideal and the message that if you're thin you'll be happy and you'll be smart and successful. So when I applied all those traits - compulsivity, high anxiety, perfectionism - to trying to meet the thin ideal, for me it was the perfect storm for an eating disorder.

Still, Jenni says society's thinness obsession can have a negative impact on anyone: But what I see now is that regardless of whether someone has a clinical eating disorder, so many people in this world live in this disordered-eating zone. They're worried about food all the time, they still eat but it's a constant worry, a constant weight. They're a healthy weight, but they still worry. And I think it's really sad that the norm is to not like your body. I think society really has an eating disorder - I call it "societal Ed."

How did you get past the thin ideal? The keys for me with body image was giving myself time and patience to accept and then love my body. Also it's a continuum as well - I started off hating my body, moved to not liking it, then I moved to accepting it, then I moved to liking it, then I moved to loving it. That continuum of my body image improving took years and years. What I've learned, it's really wild, people I know who have recovered from eating disorders have so many more tools to deal with "societal Ed," aka the thin ideal. I spent years talking to a therapist about the size of my thighs. Normal women out there - they don't have that luxury, they don't get those tools. I feel that my eating disorder forced me to be healthier than I ever would have been.

Come back tomorrow to learn more about the tools anyone can use to improve body image.

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Divorcing Ed

TresSugar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:00:37 PST

At age four, author Jenni Schaefer felt fat in dance class. At the age of 22, when her life had become unmanageable thanks to anorexia and bulimia, Jenni committed to getting help and began the long path toward successfully "divorcing" her eating disorder. Jenni has written two books - Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me - and now serves as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). This is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, so I talked to Jenni about her journey toward life without an eating disorder and will share her insight with you this week.

How did you become a NEDA ambassador? I got help at 22. I was struggling with anorexia and bulimia and it took many years to get better, but once I finally did I wanted to help get the word out. I recovered using a unique technique - my first book is called Life Without Ed, and "Ed" is an acronym for eating disorder. I was taught to treat my eating disorder like a relationship, rather than an illness. So in therapy I actually talked to Ed, and I learned to find my own voice and eventually divorce Ed, which is a metaphor I used a lot in recovery. . . It's a little confusing now, that "ED" actually stands for something else!

How did you know you needed help? I actually thought for so long that I was really healthy, and I think that's what most women and men that first get into eating disorders initially think - and maybe they are initially healthy, but so many times dieting can spiral fast into a clinical eating disorder. I think I finally realized I had a problem in college when my life was spinning out of control. I felt hopeless; when I graduated I couldn't even hold a job waiting tables. Here I was, I was supposed to go to medical school, I had straight As in college and I couldn't hold a job waiting tables because my eating disorder was so bad. And that's when I finally decided to get help, when I was at rock bottom. I didn't want to live another day if I had to live with my eating disorder, but I actually wanted to live.

Jenni acknowledges that the line between an eating disorder and dieting isn't always so clear: It'd be safe to say for someone struggling with an eating disorder that in the beginning, they're not going to know. They're going to think they're being healthy. They're going to be receiving compliments for their eating behaviors. A key question to ask yourself: is my life unmanageable because of food and weight? Is my life miserable because of food and weight? And if your life is unmanageable and you're unhappy because of food and weight then you need to get help regardless of what you're doing with food, regardless of what you weigh.

Jenni, who lost a friend to anorexia last year, says that if you suspect a friend is struggling you have to do something: So many people are afraid to approach someone about a mental illness regardless of what it might be, but this is an illness that kills.

So what should an outsider do? To find out,

read more. It's different for different people, but one of the worse things you can say is, "You're so thin," or "I've noticed you've lost a lot of weight," because they'll take that as a compliment. So it's best to be very specific and point out behaviors that you've seen, but don't gear them toward weight. You might say: "I've noticed in the past few weeks you seem to be isolating more, you seem to be moody." Because a sign of an eating disorder is isolation and moodiness, depression. Another thing people might point out is, "I notice that when we go out to eat you always get up and go to the bathroom immediately after eating and I'm concerned about that" or "Lately you've been skipping lunch, and I'm concerned about that." It's OK to mention specific behaviors but steer away from weight. And also use "I" statements rather than "you." "I'm concerned," "I'm here for you." "I want to help you." Instead of focusing on "You've lost weight," or "You're killing yourself" that just makes people feel ashamed and with eating disorders they already feel ashamed. And they don't need to feel any more guilt because this is an illness, not a choice. They don't choose to have it, but they do choose to get better, and a friend can be a key in making that choice. Jenni says one of the best things about NEDA is the anonymous helpline: People can call, and no one will ask their name and they can actually get resources and ask questions, and it's a free anonymous helpline. You can call the hotline at: 1-800-931-2237.

Dear Poll: Have You, or Someone You Know, Ever Been Affected by an Eating Disorder?

DearSugar — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:00:00 PST

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and since as many as 10 million females and one million males in the US are suffering from an eating disorder, I'm thankful that we have resources such as the National Eating Disorders Association. Their main goal is to raise awareness, educate, support, and eventually help eradicate eating disorders altogether.

Body image issues are common all over the world and they can easily manifest in an eating disorder so I'm curious to see how many of you have either suffered from one yourself, or known someone that has. I know this is a very personal topic of conversation, but if you're willing to talk about it, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source

Speak Up: How Have Eating Disorders Affected You?

FitSugar — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:30:00 PST

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week encourages eating disorder sufferers to get help and educates the public. Some of you are all too aware of them, whether you've personally suffered or watched someone close to you.

Part of raising awareness is speaking out. Whether it's recognizing their effects on the mind, body, and relationships or understanding recovery is possible, opening up about your story could help someone else. How have eating disorders affected you?

Source

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:00:03 PST

I want to make you all aware that it is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Eating disorders are serious issues and there are a lot of folks out there suffering. Most of us have heard of anorexia and bulimia, but MSNBC recently reported that binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the US. Just as it not easy to assume that all eating disorders are the same, it is not easy to determine the cause of eating disorders.

The National Eating Disorder Association sponsors the week of awareness, and events are held all over the nation. Check their website calendar to see if there is an event happening near you. The site has a wealth of information. Best of all the NEDA website has treatment referrals for folks at risk for eating disorders.

The theme this year for National Eating Disorder Awareness week is: "Be comfortable in your genes. Wear jeans that fit the REAL you." A sentiment we can all appreciate, especially since this is the year the dreaded "skinny jeans" become a fashion staple.

Supportive Websites For Help With Eating Disorders

FitSugar — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:00:16 PST

The last week of February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and this year's motto is, "It's Time to Talk About It." If you or someone you know is suffering from an ED, here's a list of online resources that can offer information, support, and help. Hopefully, this will help in bringing them one step closer to talking about it.

SomethingFishy: This is an active website with lots of forums, which makes it a great way to get info while also being part of a supportive community. If someone you know has an ED, it recommends ways that you can help, which include a comprehensive list of treatment centers so you can find one near you.
National Eating Disorders Association: If you're looking for someone to talk to, you can call its toll free helpline at 800-931-2237, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PST.
EatingDisordersOnline.com: This website is full of recent articles on eating disorders and gives a lot of valuable information on the different types of eating disorders and recovery. It also describes many different treatment options to help you decide which one will work best for you.

See more resources when you