While college campuses across the nation observed National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, AU hosted events for Body Image Awareness Week, a larger concept that encompasses eating disorders and other issues.
“We like to use the broader definition of body image awareness rather than just eating disorder awareness because that encompasses even more people,” said Wellness Center Health Educator Alan Duffy.
This year’s Body Image Awareness Week was co-sponsored by the Wellness Center, Women’s Initiative, AU Student Government and the AU Psychology Club.
The week began with a National Eating Disorders Awareness Walk on Sunday, Feb. 20.
Other events included a “True Beauty Fashion Show,” candlelight vigil, discussion on body image in the media and “Stepping off the Scales,” a presentation by Johanna Kandel, an anorexia survivor and director of the Eating Disorders Coalition in West Palm Beach, Fla.
After surviving her own ordeal, Kandel decided to help others who are suffering from the same condition.
“Body image is not real,” Kandel said. “You create it from what surrounds you like the media, friends, peers, family, role models and more. It is what you make of it and how you see yourself and how others see you.”
Kandel’s presentation included discussion and an education slideshow on the development of body image over time, but focused on Kandel’s personal account of her struggle with an eating disorder.
Duffy said that the organizers of Body Image Awareness Week decided to invite Kandel because she uses an interactive format to talk with students about her experience and how she managed to recover and continues to be well.
“We really wanted to use that empowering story of a young woman who had been through a lot of things herself and could really engage AU’s population,” he said.
Duffy said that an event like “Stepping off the Scales” can have a huge effect for one or two people in the audience who are currently struggling with an eating disorder, or who have struggled in the past.
Duffy said that the Wellness Center has received positive feedback from the event and that some people have already expressed how it helped them come out of their shell.
At the end of the presentation, some people walked up and hugged Kandel, Duffy said.
The week culminated on Feb. 26 with a candlelight vigil for eating disorders on the steps of Kay Spiritual Life Center.
Attendees lit candles and held a moment of silence for people who have died from, are struggling with or are overcoming eating disorders.
“I’m here today because I personally witnessed a friend’s struggle with an eating disorder,” said Women’s Initiative Director Quinn Pregliasco. “I want to be here for her.”
Three to eight percent of the U.S. population suffers from an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder or other non-clinical eating disorders, according to Duffy.
He said that college students are affected by eating disorders more than any other age population and that the rate of eating disorders tends to double in college environments.
Duffy said that many people fail to get proper treatment for eating disorders due to social stigmas about mental health, which results in 20 percent of people who suffer from anorexia dying within five years of contracting it.
“The most common cause of death in young women between the ages of 12 and 25 is an eating disorder, second only to car accidents,” Duffy said. “Eating disorders have the highest death rate of any psychiatric disorder.”
Although the majority of eating disorder victims are female, Duffy said that 10 to 15 percent of people with eating disorders are male. He said eating disorders are often viewed as a Caucasian issue, but that it is beginning to affect other demographics.
“Eating disorders don’t discriminate,” Duffy said.
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