By MACKENZIE ISSLER
Recorder Staff
DEERFIELD -- When 17-year-old Jenna Gagnon first developed an eating disorder, her family didn't realize why she was losing weight -- they thought that she was just eating healthy and exercising and complimented her often on the way she looked.
Gagnon, a friendly and articulate blonde-haired senior at Frontier Regional High School, said she is in recovery from bulimia now and first became anorexic when she was 12. Several traumas in her family, including the deaths of her grandparents, intensified her eating disorder and she became bulimic, which means that she would eat, sometimes bingeing, and then would throw up her food.
She said her friends, frustrated, would sometimes yell at her about her eating disorders, but she was in denial. So, when Gagnon started helping organize this year's Community Coalition for Teens' Youth Conference, she wanted to make sure that there was a workshop offered about eating disorders. She wanted to help her peers understand the illnesses and what they can do to help.
About 200 students from across the area gathered on Wednesday at Frontier Regional School for the 20th annual youth conference. Each year, the conference offers myriad workshops and performances addressing youth issues, which included, this year, media education, stress, travel, mental health, employment, racism and publishing.
A group of Frontier students, known as the Frontier Friends, led by youth conference coordinator Gagnon, have been planning the conference since September.
Gagnon worked tirelessly to get Katie Heimer from the Multi-Service Eating Disorders Association in Newton to come and speak. The association is a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and disordered eating.
Heimer, 26, spoke to a group of about 25, about her own experiences with an eating disorder, shared harrowing statistics and reiterated that people can fully recover from eating disorders and that they are "about emotions, not food."
Eighty percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies, Heimer said. "It is kind of an epidemic when you think about it in those terms."
There are four primary types of eating disorders: bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder and "Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified," where, in some cases, someone may exhibit the signs of the other disorders but not completely fulfill the diagnostic definition.
Conservative estimates suggest that bulimia and anorexia affect 5 million to 10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men and binge eating disorder affects as many as 24 million men and women, according to handouts at the workshop.
Heimer said the common causes of eating disorders are major life transitions, family problems, social/romantic problems, trauma, genetics, social values/messages and failure at school, work and/or competitive events.
Some of the medical complications associated with eating disorders are nausea, insomnia, increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer, high cholesterol, dental problems (like damaged or discolored teeth), loss of monthly menstrual period, hair loss, hollow facial features, dry skin, osteoporosis, acid reflux, gastrointestinal problems and heart palpitations and heart failure, weight-related hypertension and/or fatigue.
Ten percent of people with anorexia die each year, Heimer said.
Heimer's story
Heimer's eating disorder developed around the time she went through puberty. During puberty, it is normal for girls to gain 40 to 50 pounds and it can be almost double that for boys, she said.
Around the same time she went through puberty, Heimer had a major trauma in her family, leaving she and her family confused and overwhelmed. Soon after, she started high school, and after her freshman year, she got a physical and saw that she had gained weight. Her family was getting ready to go on a vacation and she heard many times that people gain weight while away, so she decided to go on a diet. When she got back from the vacation, she had lost weight and "finally found something" that she could control. She then set another goal for herself to lose more weight. And, then kept setting new targets thinking, "If I just can get to this weight, I will feel better."
Heimer says that dieting is a starting point for many people who develop eating disorders. Dieters are eight times more likely than non-dieters to develop an eating disorder and 98 percent of people with eating disorder have said their disorder started with dieting, she said. "It sets up a mindset that can be very unhealthy."
Some signs and symptoms of eating disorders are intense fear of gaining weight, frequent denial of hunger, avoiding social situations where food may be present, preoccupation with food, calories, nutrition and/or cooking, secretive eating habits, mood swings, body shame, compulsive exercise, use of laxatives, restrictive eating, purging behaviors, hoarding or stealing food, going to the bathroom after meals and eating alone.
Treatment and recovery usually involves several approaches and interventions, Heimer said. This can include nutritional counseling, psychotherapy, group therapy, family/marital therapy, psychiatric evaluation, seeing a physician and support from family and friends.
Her recovery began after her mother noticed the physical signs of her eating disorder. She said, at that time, she didn't feel that she needed to get better, but after she was forced to slowly gain weight, her "mind cleared a little."
She said she would have moments, where she still didn't want to get better, but she knew she needed to. She recalled a time when her family had made plans to go out for dinner. She said she fixated and planned around that meal the whole week, restricted what she was eating even more and knew ahead of time exactly what she would eat at the restaurant. When her mother told her that the plans had changed and that they wouldn't be going out, she started to cry and hyperventilate, saying, "I have to go."
In her senior year in high school, she applied to study abroad. Her guidance counselor told her she had the strongest application, but that they didn't feel that she was healthy enough to go. "Doors were closing."
By the time she got to college, she said she had physically recovered, but that is when she did more work to recover mentally, which included seeing a therapist, meeting new people, taking interesting classes and participating in different clubs and activities.
She said it has taken time for the voices to go away, like the ones about calorie counting and restriction. "But, the more I ignored them, the fainter they got."
For more information on MEDA, visit www.medainc.org.
If you believe that one of your friends or fellow students has an eating disorder, this is what you should know, according to MEDA. They use the acronym ACT NOW to help people remember.
* Ask to speak with your friend privately
* Confront with concern and care
* Tell your friend what you see that makes you concerned
* Never continue the conversation if either of you becomes too emotional
* Only professionals can diagnose, so don t play therapist or caretaker
* When you end the conversation, tell an adult immediately
No comments:
Post a Comment