Monday, 08 March 2010 18:47

Experts: Eating disorders create unnatural relationship with food

Eating disorders aren't just about eating, according to experts on a panel Monday at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

The discussion, "It's Time to Talk About it," was one of many events on campus for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

"We wanted to bring the panel to campus to heighten the awareness of eating disorders," said Trish Holen, a graduate assistant in the Women's Center.

Almost 50 people attended the panel discussion.

 "Eating disorder doesn't just mean that you restrict your food. An eating disorder can be any sort of unnatural use of food," said Lyndsey Clewell, an anorexia and bulimia survivor. "That includes purging and throwing up, over exercising to burn off calories or includes binge eating and eating and eating and eating then purging to get rid of the calories."

She added that eating disorders are often very secretive and shameful for victims.

Kathryn Manley, a mental health practitioner at Michael Burke and Associates, said because people with eating disorders are good at hiding their diseases, it's difficult to tell who has a disorder.

"Just because they're very thin, they may not have an eating disorder," she said. "Even if they're within their healthy weight range, they may have an eating disorder. You just can't tell."

Manley said self-rejection is very common among people with eating disorders.

"The behavior that goes with that, starving yourself or some abuse with food, is the ultimate rejection of self," she said.

The panelists agreed that eating disorders are about more than food.

 "My approach has always been that it's about the eating, but it's not about the eating," said associate director of UNK Counseling Care Roz Sheldon.

Sheldon said disordered eating often is a symptom of something else. People may be suffering from depression or another mental illness. The disordered eating may also be a result of stress or body image or self-esteem issues.

"Don't just go up to someone and say, 'Just eat a sandwich,' because that's not the answer to the problem," Clewell added.

Nurse practitioner Deena Sughroue said although people risk losing a friend by confronting them about their eating disorder, saying something is better than not saying anything.

"I was able to hide it for two or three years and that was two or three years of damage done before I started getting any help," Clewell said. Clewell was hospitalized nine times before getting better.

She has been in recovery for two years now.

"Anorexia is a deadly disease," Clewell said. "It is the most deadly mental illness."

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the mortality rate for anorexic females ages 15 to 24 is 12 times higher than the death rate of all other causes of death.

Sheldon added that there is a high rate of suicide among people with eating disorders. People with eating disorders often have a distorted image of themselves.

"Patients will be incredibly thin, but don't see it. I will talk to people who have never had an eating disorder and tell them that when you look in a mirror at a circus that makes you look all distorted, in reality that's how they see themselves when they look in the mirror. They see these huge thighs and they're probably as skinny as can be," Sughroue said.

When she was in the disease, Clewell said she thought she could see her thighs grow when she ate.

Manley said body dysmorphia is another disease that may not take the form of food control.

According to the Mayo Clinic, body dysmorphic disorder is a chronic mental illness in which someone can't stop thinking about a flaw in their appearance. The flaw can either be minor or imagined. Manley said the disease is common among male athletes.

More than 1 million men and boys suffer from eating disorders, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Manley said eating disorders are an addiction similar to alcoholism or drug addiction, but are more difficult because people can survive without alcohol and can't survive without food.

Michelle Huls, chief clinical dietitian at Good Samaritan Hospital, said the longer an eating disorder goes on, the harder it is to repair the body.

Hunger and satiety signals become distorted with disordered eating and re-establishing metabolism is difficult. People with eating disorders are also at risk of going into cardiac arrest, experiencing kidney failure and having digestion problems.

People with bulimia often have damage to the esophagus, lose the enamel from their teeth and have puffed cheeks because of increased production of saliva from purging.

Manley said the ultimate goal is to help people love themselves for who they are and help them embrace their own bodies. "Your physical appearance is only a fraction of what you have to offer," Huls said.