Eating disorders: finding an answer

By Jennifer Umaña
Daily Forty-Niner

"If I can't change the world, then I can change myself."

In a different context, these words might provide a sense of self-empowerment.  In this case, as spoken by Natasha Dyer's character Sabine in the one-act play "The Most Massive Woman Wins," they seem to provide a cop-out to a deeper, underlying problem.

That same problem involves eating disorders and body image -- not uncommon on college campuses.

The play, written by Madeleine George, was one of two one-act performances by the LoudRMouth Theatre Company Wednesday in the University Theater. "Wins" takes place in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic where four women explain problems with their bodies and people's reactions to them throughout the years.

The second one-act play, "Growing Wings to Fly," was an adaptation of an autobiographical book by Judy Tam Sargeant, detailing her history with anorexia.

Anorexia, however, effects more than just one individual's story.

According to the Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc. Web site, about one percent of female adolescents have anorexia nervosa.

The percentage is equal to about one in every 100 women. Anorexia is a condition when a person chooses not to maintain a body weight normal for their height and age.

About four percent of college-aged women have bulimia, an eating disorder that involves binging and purging, according to the Web site. It states that about 50 percent of people who have been anorexic develop bulimia or bulimic patterns.

Stacy Nordquist, the program director for The Center for Discovery, an eating disorder clinic in Lakewood, said there are several criteria needed to define anorexia, including restricting food intake, fear of being fat, and maintaining a weight 85 percent below the ideal body weight. Bulimia is characterized by frequent bouts of excessive food intake followed by a purging of the food by exercise, self-induced vomiting, laxatives or other methods. Anorexia is a restricting type of behavior, while bulimia is a compensatory behavior, she said.

"There are no simple definitions for these disorders," Nordquist said.

"It's not possible to give a basic definition," she said. "It would be great if we could make it a simple thing. But it's complex."

Campus help is available for people who want to change themselves both inside and out.

Dr. Carrie Jo Johnson, of CSULB's Counseling and Psychological Services, is forming a body image group for women.

"The group is for women who have issues that revolve around food or their bodies," Johnson said. "For some reason they are dissatisfied with their bodies."

Sometimes these issues are a result of problems with anger or intimacy issues, among other reasons. The focus of the group is to work through these issues and get some help. This is the seventh semester the group will be formed. The group of eight to 10 women meet on a weekly basis.

"The women who participate find the group to be very helpful," Johnson said. "They develop healthier eating habits."

Johnson said that while the group includes overeaters and bulimics, they do not take those with extreme cases of anorexia. They refer them to physicians or to the health center.

To help a friend or family member who has an eating disorder, one should be gentle but direct, Nordquist said.

"Focus on the feelings, vs. the food and the weight," Nordquist said. "Go from an emotional standpoint. Make sure to remember the person as a person, not as an eating disorder."