I've been sending out a few school and sorority information packets each month. If you would like a packet, I will send you one FREE OF CHARGE! Just comment with your e-mail address, and I will be in touch.
Included in the packet are:
- ED related newletter or magazine (subject to availability)
- Introductory letter and contact card
- Can you eat too healthy?
- Harriet Brown's I-Love-My-Body Pledge
- Spanish language info sheet
- How to help your overweight child
- The truth about laxative abuse
- Exercise Prescription and eating disorders
- At Risk: All cultural and ethnic groups
- Confront: The plan for confronting someone you feel has an eating disorder
- Boys and eating disorders
- Book list
- Do's and don't's of helping someone recover from Binge Eating Disorder
- ANAD BMI testing in schools position statement
- FEAST press release
- Healthcare myths
- FEAST pamphlet
- Eating disorders ignored
- ANAD facts
- Physical consequences of eating disorders
- Symptoms lists and charts
- School program information
- ANAD pamphet
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Girls from educated families more at risk of eating disorders
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Girls from well educated families who do well at school appear to be more at risk of developing an eating disorder, maybe because they feel more pressure to succeed, according to Swedish researchers.
A study which followed more than 13,000 women born in Sweden between 1952 and 1989 found that as parents' or grandmothers' education increased, so did girls' risk of being hospitalized for anorexia or another eating disorder.
The risk also climbed in tandem with the girls' own grades in high school, the researchers from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
"It's possible that these girls feel more pressure from family to succeed -- which for some could translate into an obsession with controlling their eating and body weight," the researchers said in a statement.
They added that higher-achieving girls may also be more likely to have certain personality traits, such as perfectionism, that make them relatively more vulnerable to eating disorders.
Such demands likely play an "important role" in eating disorder development, researcher Jennie Ahren-Moonga told Reuters Health.
"This is even more relevant when combined with low self- esteem, as the feeling of not being able to live up to expectations plays a crucial role in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa," she said.
The vast majority of girls in the study were never treated for an eating disorder, regardless of family education and grades with only 55 out of 13,376 hospitalized during the study period.
The researchers said the findings did not prove that greater education and school achievement lead to eating disorders but suggest that girls from families with higher academic achievement were at relatively greater risk which could help prevent the onset of such problems.
Girls whose parents went to college had about twice the risk of being treated for an eating disorder as those whose parents had only an elementary-school education.
The risk was six times higher among girls whose maternal grandmothers had a college education, compared with those whose grandmothers went only to elementary school.
Similarly, girls with the highest grades at age 15 had twice the risk of hospitalization as girls with the lowest grades.
Ahren-Moonga said parents should be aware of the potential signs of an eating disorder, such as when a child begins to skip meals, routinely goes to the bathroom after a meal or loses weight for no clear reason.
(Reporting by Reuters Health, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
A study which followed more than 13,000 women born in Sweden between 1952 and 1989 found that as parents' or grandmothers' education increased, so did girls' risk of being hospitalized for anorexia or another eating disorder.
The risk also climbed in tandem with the girls' own grades in high school, the researchers from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
"It's possible that these girls feel more pressure from family to succeed -- which for some could translate into an obsession with controlling their eating and body weight," the researchers said in a statement.
They added that higher-achieving girls may also be more likely to have certain personality traits, such as perfectionism, that make them relatively more vulnerable to eating disorders.
Such demands likely play an "important role" in eating disorder development, researcher Jennie Ahren-Moonga told Reuters Health.
"This is even more relevant when combined with low self- esteem, as the feeling of not being able to live up to expectations plays a crucial role in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa," she said.
The vast majority of girls in the study were never treated for an eating disorder, regardless of family education and grades with only 55 out of 13,376 hospitalized during the study period.
The researchers said the findings did not prove that greater education and school achievement lead to eating disorders but suggest that girls from families with higher academic achievement were at relatively greater risk which could help prevent the onset of such problems.
Girls whose parents went to college had about twice the risk of being treated for an eating disorder as those whose parents had only an elementary-school education.
The risk was six times higher among girls whose maternal grandmothers had a college education, compared with those whose grandmothers went only to elementary school.
Similarly, girls with the highest grades at age 15 had twice the risk of hospitalization as girls with the lowest grades.
Ahren-Moonga said parents should be aware of the potential signs of an eating disorder, such as when a child begins to skip meals, routinely goes to the bathroom after a meal or loses weight for no clear reason.
(Reporting by Reuters Health, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Two college seasons - one rant: By Laura Collins
The ED world is buzzing with the same chat that always goes on in August: parents and clinicians looking for referrals to eating disorder treatment for a student leaving for college. These emails, listing symptoms and medical state, break my heart. They often use the word "motivated" and "charming" as if patients need to be pleasing in order to garner a clinician's attention.
It all begs the question: Why would a student with an active eating disorder be going to college? Really - I'm serious. I don't understand why this is acceptable. This is a life-sucking, potentially disabling or lethal illness: an anosognosic condition that thrives on secrecy and freedom from monitoring.
I know the tremendous pressure on parents by social expectations, by the young person's insistence that everything will be all right and that this is all he or she "lives for." I know the guilt and disempowerment of being told by professional advisers that we must 'let go.' I also know parents just get tired, and our egos get involved in the accomplishments of our children.
But you know what? We're parents, and that is a lifelong position. We have a right and a responsibility to do what is right for our child according to our unique and loving judgement. No one can tell us (and no one will take responsibility later) whether college is safe or advisable.
I put my money where my mouth is on this one: my daughter relapsed slightly after her freshman year and we withdrew support for college until she was not just well but quite well. She did not like that. We did not like doing it. But I believe it was our job to do it, and her longterm health and recovery depended on it. When she was ready, she went back and thrived (and had a treatment team for maintenance).
I've dealt with two universities as a parent - neither were in a position to protect or support my daughter's mental health. They said they could and would, but that isn't realistic. Looking back I don't know why I entertained the idea that they could. This is not diabetes or a vision problem where the patient is motivated and able to reliably self-monitor. Schools are not parents.
No team of providers on or off campus is going to be able to provide the kind of accountability and monitoring and personal support that a parent provides and an eating disorder patient deserves. No one at the dorm is going to watch out for or call the parents of a student unless the situation is so far gone that irreparable damage is done. We can't expect it and we can't get angry that they don't do it.
If you are not 100% confident of your child's recovery, committed to staying in the picture more than your child and school may like, ready to visit frequently, and have an expert team in place and in communication then why is college more important? If you feel pressured, or exhausted, or trapped, keep this in mind:
During November break is when I get the most emails and calls - from families who now realize their hand-wringing worries were well-founded and a shaky recovery is now an derailing relapse.
Recovery - full recovery - first. School can wait.
It all begs the question: Why would a student with an active eating disorder be going to college? Really - I'm serious. I don't understand why this is acceptable. This is a life-sucking, potentially disabling or lethal illness: an anosognosic condition that thrives on secrecy and freedom from monitoring.
I know the tremendous pressure on parents by social expectations, by the young person's insistence that everything will be all right and that this is all he or she "lives for." I know the guilt and disempowerment of being told by professional advisers that we must 'let go.' I also know parents just get tired, and our egos get involved in the accomplishments of our children.
But you know what? We're parents, and that is a lifelong position. We have a right and a responsibility to do what is right for our child according to our unique and loving judgement. No one can tell us (and no one will take responsibility later) whether college is safe or advisable.
I put my money where my mouth is on this one: my daughter relapsed slightly after her freshman year and we withdrew support for college until she was not just well but quite well. She did not like that. We did not like doing it. But I believe it was our job to do it, and her longterm health and recovery depended on it. When she was ready, she went back and thrived (and had a treatment team for maintenance).
I've dealt with two universities as a parent - neither were in a position to protect or support my daughter's mental health. They said they could and would, but that isn't realistic. Looking back I don't know why I entertained the idea that they could. This is not diabetes or a vision problem where the patient is motivated and able to reliably self-monitor. Schools are not parents.
No team of providers on or off campus is going to be able to provide the kind of accountability and monitoring and personal support that a parent provides and an eating disorder patient deserves. No one at the dorm is going to watch out for or call the parents of a student unless the situation is so far gone that irreparable damage is done. We can't expect it and we can't get angry that they don't do it.
If you are not 100% confident of your child's recovery, committed to staying in the picture more than your child and school may like, ready to visit frequently, and have an expert team in place and in communication then why is college more important? If you feel pressured, or exhausted, or trapped, keep this in mind:
During November break is when I get the most emails and calls - from families who now realize their hand-wringing worries were well-founded and a shaky recovery is now an derailing relapse.
Recovery - full recovery - first. School can wait.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Did Bullying Cause A Girl's Anorexia? From Jezebel
Original Article
In what may be the first lawsuit of its kind, a mom is suing the Pittsburgh Public Schools for failing to stop the bullying she says caused her daughter's anorexia.
The mother says three boys began calling her daughter (identified in the suit by the initials B.G.) "fat" in sixth grade, and that two more boys joined in the daily bullying the next year. Her lawyer Edward A. Olds elaborates: "The offensive comments explicitly and implicitly conveyed the message that B.G. was unattractive and overweight. The comments were sexual in nature or conveyed sexual stereotyping."
B.G.'s mom says a guidance counselor did nothing when told about the bullying, and that school officials began harassing her when she tried to homeschool her daughter. She also says that the boys' actions triggered the anorexia that landed her daughter in an inpatient program in February 2008, at a "dangerously low" weight.
However, Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, says it's too simplistic to say bullying causes an eating disorder. Rather, she says, "With eating disorders, we say you're born with a gun and life pulls the trigger." Carrie Arnold of ED Bites adds:
"[T]he bullying didn't cause this poor girl's anorexia. It might have triggered it, yes, in the sense that the bullying caused her to throw her lunch away, which led to the energy imbalance, which led to anorexia. But it didn't cause her anorexia. Science shows us that genetics form the biggest risk factor for eating disorders, although many environmental factors can play a role in triggering the disorder. This type of bullying is sadly common, and if every case resulted in anorexia, we would have many more cases of eating disorders than we presently do."
"The causes of eating disorders are extremely complex, and not fully understood — the question of whether skinny models actually "incite thinness," for instance, is still being debated. But the cause-trigger paradigm that Grefe and Arnold cite seems to be the most common one, and if we accept it, we need to ask how severe a trigger has to be in order to merit a lawsuit. Could an anorexia sufferer sue a magazine? Her parents? Since weight loss itself can be a trigger for anorexia, could someone sue the restaurant where she got food poisoning?
Of course, non-anorexic people sue restaurants for giving them food poisoning, and this brings up an important point: many triggers for eating disorders are bad things anyway. Bullying is a good example. Even if it didn't "cause" B.G.'s anorexia, the school should have put a stop to it. Law professor Bruce Ledewitz says the real issue is that bullying "deprives the victim of an educational opportunity." And Arnold writes, "Schools should refuse to tolerate bullying because it's harmful and wrong, not just because someone developed an eating disorder." So while the lawsuit brought by B.G.'s mom may encourage a simplistic understanding of eating disorders, it might also encourage schools to prevent their students from making each other miserable.
In what may be the first lawsuit of its kind, a mom is suing the Pittsburgh Public Schools for failing to stop the bullying she says caused her daughter's anorexia.
The mother says three boys began calling her daughter (identified in the suit by the initials B.G.) "fat" in sixth grade, and that two more boys joined in the daily bullying the next year. Her lawyer Edward A. Olds elaborates: "The offensive comments explicitly and implicitly conveyed the message that B.G. was unattractive and overweight. The comments were sexual in nature or conveyed sexual stereotyping."
B.G.'s mom says a guidance counselor did nothing when told about the bullying, and that school officials began harassing her when she tried to homeschool her daughter. She also says that the boys' actions triggered the anorexia that landed her daughter in an inpatient program in February 2008, at a "dangerously low" weight.
However, Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, says it's too simplistic to say bullying causes an eating disorder. Rather, she says, "With eating disorders, we say you're born with a gun and life pulls the trigger." Carrie Arnold of ED Bites adds:
"[T]he bullying didn't cause this poor girl's anorexia. It might have triggered it, yes, in the sense that the bullying caused her to throw her lunch away, which led to the energy imbalance, which led to anorexia. But it didn't cause her anorexia. Science shows us that genetics form the biggest risk factor for eating disorders, although many environmental factors can play a role in triggering the disorder. This type of bullying is sadly common, and if every case resulted in anorexia, we would have many more cases of eating disorders than we presently do."
"The causes of eating disorders are extremely complex, and not fully understood — the question of whether skinny models actually "incite thinness," for instance, is still being debated. But the cause-trigger paradigm that Grefe and Arnold cite seems to be the most common one, and if we accept it, we need to ask how severe a trigger has to be in order to merit a lawsuit. Could an anorexia sufferer sue a magazine? Her parents? Since weight loss itself can be a trigger for anorexia, could someone sue the restaurant where she got food poisoning?
Of course, non-anorexic people sue restaurants for giving them food poisoning, and this brings up an important point: many triggers for eating disorders are bad things anyway. Bullying is a good example. Even if it didn't "cause" B.G.'s anorexia, the school should have put a stop to it. Law professor Bruce Ledewitz says the real issue is that bullying "deprives the victim of an educational opportunity." And Arnold writes, "Schools should refuse to tolerate bullying because it's harmful and wrong, not just because someone developed an eating disorder." So while the lawsuit brought by B.G.'s mom may encourage a simplistic understanding of eating disorders, it might also encourage schools to prevent their students from making each other miserable.
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