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Oct. 16, 2020 Campus Voices | Halloween | News | Politics | Satire | Eating Disorder | Sports
EATING DI
THE SILENT STRUGGLE O
PHOTO BY BRIDGET REILLY | THE WICHITAN
The Crisis Textline is open 24/7, 365 days a year: Text CONNECT to 741741. ELIZABETH MAHAN REPORTER ollege life can be hard. You’re away from family and the life you once knew. You have a paper, two tests and a couple of quizzes due this week, and if you’re an athlete, you have practices, workouts and games on top of that. For some students, this stress along with the stress of building new friendships and relationships only amplifies the body image issues they’ve been struggling with for a long time. In some cases, poor self-image and other issues can lead to the development of an eating disorder or an unhealthy relationship with food. Kylie Kerr, professional counselor at the MSU Texas counseling center, said students who are struggling with eating disorders should get the help they need sooner rather
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than later because eating disorders can be a major cause of death. “It’s a very dangerous thing when we’re maybe not eating at all and just eliminating food or practicing binging and purging, and it destroys your body over time, so it’s really serious and can be really life-threatening if we don’t catch it in time,” Kerr said. “I think athletes may be a little more susceptible just because they’re under so much pressure to maintain a certain body weight or to be healthy and stay fit enough to compete on that level.” Jeremy Pick, strength and conditioning coach, works with athletes in football, men’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s soccer and track and field, and he described why he thought athletes are at a greater risk for eating disorders.
“Eating disorders are usually people who are fairly disciplined and very determined in whatever it is that their goals are, which kind of fits the personality of athletes. They usually have that self-discipline to make themselves do some of the things that are classified as eating disorders, whether it’s purging or severe restriction. It takes a little fortitude to do that, and athletes sometimes fit that bill,” Pick said. Jasmine Amo, finance senior, has been a track and cross country athlete since elementary school. At the university Amo attended prior to transferring to MSU, her coach pushed her to run between 12 and 15 miles a day. “It was just ridiculous, and I overheard that he was doing it for me to lose weight because I’m not a smaller runner. Essentially my body could barely function because I had such high
mileage because of this desire they have for us to be anorexic,” Amo said. Lauren Tisdale, a graduate of special education from MSU in December 2019 was diagnosed with anorexia at the age of 16. However, she began struggling with those types of thoughts and behaviors since she was 11. When explaining why she thought eating disorders are common in college students, Tisdale said, “you’re away from home for the first time, and a lot of times eating disorders are because of control, and so that might be one thing that they can control while it’s their first time being away.” Kristin Tempelmeyer, who graduated from MSU in May 2020 with a degree in mass communication, said she was a disordered eater during her first few years in college at a university six hours away from home. The university was smaller than MSU, and it had very limited and unsatisfactory dining options. During this time, Tempelmeyer also had volleyball practice from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cafeteria didn’t open until 6 p.m., and she was supposed to be at practice 30 minutes early. “I started making a habit for myself of [eating] after practice, and that was the only time that I ate because that was the only time I left my room was to go to practice. Then I would go eat, and I would go to McDonald’s, and I got two breakfast burritos and a caramel frappuccino,” Tempelmeyer said. “I just didn’t eat, and my body got used to it. My stomach started shrinking, so because of the way that I was eating, I was losing the weight that I wanted, and I liked those results.”Pick said coaches need to be tactful in how they talk to their student-athletes. “If a coach maintains a positive coaching style, usually there’s less pressure on those athletes to be overly concerned about weight or how they might look.... I’ve seen coaches say, ‘Hey you look like you’ve put on a few.’ You’ve just got to be really careful in how you address certain things,” Pick said. Dianna Wilson-Jones, assistant women’s basketball coach, said she was glad one of her players was comfortable with confiding in her. “I actually had a player. She came up to me, and she was like, ‘I’m having difficulty, and I think I may have an eating disorder,’ which I’m glad that she was confident enough to come to me without any judgment. Most athletes try to go to their friends or try to deal with it on their own, so for this player to come up to me was a big thing for me,” Wilson-Jones said. Amo said coach pressures contributed to the development of her eating disorder. She
