RECOVERED

HEALTH

RECOVERED

OU offers a host of resources to assist students who struggle with eating disorders. BY MELISSA GOODNITE

At any given college across the nation, 10% to 20% of women and 4% to 10% of men suffer from an eating disorder, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder are four of the most common eating disorders that can, in some cases, be life-threatening. Many people don’t realize when they actually have a disorder and therefore do not seek treatment in the early stages.

NEDA defines anorexia as “an eating disorder characterized by weight loss (or lack of appropriate weight gain in growing children); difficulties maintaining an appropriate body weight for height, age and stature; and, in many individuals, distorted body image.” People with anorexia often count calories and restrict food intake, and sometimes the disorder leads to excessive exercise, vomiting or purging through laxatives or excessive fasting, NEDA states. However, not all of those symptoms have to be present to be diagnosed with the condition fasting.

Alex Gardener*, a junior at Ohio University, was diagnosed with anorexia in February 2018 and says her journey with this disorder has been “isolating, especially in college.”

“It can feel like you’re so alone sometimes. I feel like no one understands me, which causes me to withdraw,” Gardener says. “I was so focused on my body image. I wanted to change the way I looked. Growing up, I felt pressure to maintain my smallness just because everyone would always comment on it or point it out. It’s also hard when some of my family members don’t believe I have a disorder, even though I was diagnosed.”

Like Gardener, many people who struggle with eating disorders feel unsupported by their friends and family and are reluctant to admit they are struggling because of stereotypes that surround eating disorders. According to NEDA, some of the common misconceptions are: that eating disorders are a choice; that they only affect women or unless an individual is emaciated, they do not have a serious problem.

Those misconceptions create a stigma around eating disorders that can be avoided through open conversation and a willingness to learn about the facts and symptoms of eating disorders. If approached properly, family and friends have the opportunity to create a foundation for recovery for their loved ones who are struggling. Ohio University psychologist and coordinator of the Eating Disorder Support Team (EDST) Susan Folger says the facilities at OU are beneficial to students with eating disorders.

“Eating disorders affect everyone,” Folger says. “All races, genders and body shapes. Disorders are very complex. They’re elusive and difficult to treat.”

EDST works closely with students who are generally stable, Folger says. The team currently includes psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists and physicians.

“Each student must sign release forms that allow for coordination between all of the team for support.”

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) provides therapeutic aid to students with mental health illnesses like eating disorders. Counseling expenses are covered under the guaranteed plan.

In spring 2020, a new opportunity will be available at OU to help students increase body confidence. The Body Project is a NEDA-sponsored event that helps counteract current beauty standards held by many women and young girls. According to NEDA, the group-based prevention program “provides a forum for women and girls to confront unrealistic beauty ideals and engages them in the development of healthy body image through verbal, written and behavioral exercises.”

The Body Project has been found to decrease risk factors for eating disorders and decrease risk for future eating disorders, but those struggling with an eating disorder should primarily seek professional treatment through CPS. Outside of the university, more treatment options are available within Athens County. Hopewell Health Centers Inc. offers a variety of health-related resources under its Behavioral Health Services, as well as its Primary Care, that can help with eating disorders. OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital also has nutritionists on staff who are equipped to assess nutrition and provide counseling if needed.

Although eating disorders are complex and challenging to treat, there are many medical and therapeutic treatments available as well as accessible research to combat the mental illness. NEDA has a large database for those interested in learning more about eating disorders. Combating an eating disorder does not have to be done alone, and with the ever increasing amount of resources available to the public, there is always someone able and ready to listen. b

The Skin I’m In

One Backdropper shares her experiences as a mixed woman and how she learned to embrace her identity. BY MAYA MEADE | PHOTOS BY ANDREW JOHNSON AND PROVIDED BY MAYA MEADE

It has taken me all 18 years of my life to figure out what the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach is. Over time, I have learned a lot about how that feeling started, how it transformed and why it will likely never go away.

When I was younger, I never knew who I belonged to or what group I was a part of. My mom is white and my dad is black, and I am left hovering somewhere in the middle in a place called mixed. I was raised by my mom’s side of the family, so I associated more with white culture, but I would look down at the color of my arms and know that I wasn’t like my mom. I wasn’t like my grandma. I wasn’t like my grandpa. I wasn’t like any of my loved ones. I was an outsider in my own home. My mother’s past sexual relations with a black man made the rest of my family members visibly uneasy. They never did anything intentionally to hurt me, but their racist comments at family gatherings about the U.S. having a black president or “the illegals that live next door” made me feel like an intruder. With a caramel complexion, I would never completely be one of them.

On the rare occasion that I would visit my father and his family, I was aware of the striking difference in our appearances. With their darker skintones and darker, tighter curls on their heads, I thought they were “real black people.” Of course, I didn’t even know what that meant at 4 or 5 years old, but I knew I wasn’t the same as them. However, I noticed a few similarities in our bodies that I didn’t share with my maternal relatives, like the dry patches on my elbows and kneecaps and my natural curls.

My mother did her best to tame my unruly hair as a young girl with the proper products and combs. She attempted styles that would make me feel like I fit in with my black classmates in grade school. However, I sensed she was often embarrassed

by her failure as a white woman to care for my black hair.

Black and white in terms of race is not clear cut. As a biracial child, I never knew what the right thing to do was, who to impress or what my values should be. Those feelings never went away. I carried those thoughts from primary school to my freshman year of college. Beginning adulthood, I thought some things would change. I hoped I would suddenly know how to function in society as a mixed person and I would suddenly fit in somewhere.

As I consumed myself with those thoughts, I realized there are different ways to look at what being mixed means and how people define it. Someone can be culturally mixed, socially mixed or racially mixed. The ideas people have about me as a mixed person have come from all of those realms of the mixed identity. I have frequently found myself in situations where I am “too black to be white or too white to be black.” In school, that meant the color of my skin was too dark to not be the person people turned to when we talked about slavery in class, but was still light enough for people to treat me with respect during such discussions. As I matured, I realized that those phrases people used to describe me were based only on stereotypical images of race. They were ignorant to the impact of their statements.

My diverse upbringing gave me an insight to the intersectionality of my identity. I understand the privileges I have from being raised primarily by my mother’s upper middle-class family and the oppression I experience because of my race and gender. I no longer see being mixed as a burden, but as a way to explore my background from many sides. It has been a long journey to acceptance, but I realize now that I do not have to choose between being black or white. Now, I embrace the fact that I am half of both. b