Eating Disorders Awareness
Knowing When to Reach Out for Help
Help is Available!
Do you beat yourself up when you eat something unhealthy?
Do you find yourself being unable to control the amount of food you eat?
Are you having difficulty with your body image?
Have you thought about getting help, but didn't know where to start?
These are just some questions that may indicate an eating disorder or concern. Eating disorders affect people from all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities and sexualities.
Counseling Services offers a free and confidential screening to help detect eating disorders. While we do facilitate one screening day per term, you can contact us at any time to take a screening and meet briefly with a counselor to discuss your results, recommendations, and answer questions you may have. Call us at 309-341-7492 or send an email to counseling@knox.edu.
You can also take a free online screening at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.
Know the Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
- Inadequate food intake leading to a weight that is clearly too low.
- Intense fear of weight gain, obsession with weight and persistent behavior to prevent weight gain.
- Self-esteem overly related to body image.
- Inability to appreciate the severity of the situation.
- Binge-Eating/Purging Type involves binge eating and/or purging behaviors during the last three months.
- Restricting Type does not involve binge eating or purging.
In anorexia nervosa’s cycle of self-starvation, the body is denied the essential nutrients it needs to function normally. Thus, the body is forced to slow down all of its processes to conserve energy, resulting in:
- Abnormally slow heart rate and low blood pressure, which mean that the heart muscle is changing. The risk for heart failure rises as the heart rate and blood pressure levels sink lower and lower.
- Reduction of bone density (osteoporosis), which results in dry, brittle bones.
- Muscle loss and weakness.
- Severe dehydration, which can result in kidney failure.
- Fainting, fatigue, and overall weakness.
- Dry hair and skin; hair loss is common.
- Growth of a downy layer of hair—called lanugo—all over the body, including the face, in an effort to keep the body warm.
Binge Eating Disorder
- Frequent episodes of consuming very large amounts of food but without behaviors to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting.
- A feeling of being out of control during the binge eating episodes.
- Feelings of strong shame or guilt regarding the binge eating.
- Indications that the binge eating is out of control, such as eating when not hungry, eating to the point of discomfort, or eating alone because of shame about the behavior.
Binge eating disorder often results in many of the same health risks associated with clinical obesity, including:
- High blood pressure.
- High cholesterol levels.
- Heart disease as a result of elevated triglyceride levels.
- Type II diabetes mellitus.
- Gallbladder disease.
Bulimia Nervosa
- Frequent episodes of consuming very large amount of food followed by behaviors to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting.
- A feeling of being out of control during the binge-eating episodes.
- Self-esteem overly related to body image.
The recurrent binge-and-purge cycles of bulimia can affect the entire digestive system and can lead to electrolyte and chemical imbalances in the body that affect the heart and other major organ functions. Health consequences include:
- Electrolyte imbalances that can lead to irregular heartbeats and possibly heart failure and death.
- Electrolyte imbalance is caused by dehydration and loss of potassium, sodium and chloride from the body as a result of purging behaviors.
- Potential for gastric rupture during periods of bingeing.
- Inflammation and possible rupture of the esophagus from frequent vomiting.
- Tooth decay and staining from stomach acids released during frequent vomiting.
- Chronic irregular bowel movements and constipation as a result of laxative abuse.
- Peptic ulcers and pancreatitis.
Other Feeding and Eating Disorders
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
Failure to consume adequate amounts of food, with serious nutritional consequences, but without the psychological features of anorexia nervosa.
Pica
The persistent eating, over a period of at least one month, of substances that are not food and do not provide nutritional value.Rumination Disorder
Regurgitation of food that has already been swallowed. The regurgitated food is often re-swallowed or spit out.Other Considerations
Marginalization and Eating Disorders
Eating disorders have historically been associated with straight, young, white females, but in reality, they affect people from all demographics and they are not caused by any single factor.
They arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, biological, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors.
Misconceptions about who eating disorders affect have real consequences, leading to fewer diagnoses, treatment options, and pathways to help for those who don’t fit the stereotype.
- Despite similar rates of eating disorders among non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians in the United States, people of color are significantly less likely to receive help for their eating issues.
- Although eating disorders affect a higher proportion of males who identify as gay or bisexual than females, the majority of males with eating disorders are straight.
- 15% of gay and bisexual men and 4.6% of heterosexual men had a full or subthreshold eating disorder at some point in their lives.
- Black teenagers are 50% more likely than white teenagers to exhibit bulimic behavior, such as binging and purging.
- In a study of adolescents, researchers found that Hispanics were significantly more likely to suffer from bulimia nervosa than their non-Hispanic peers. The researchers also reported a trend towards a higher prevalence of binge eating disorder in all minority groups.
- Teenage girls from low-income families are 153% more likely to be bulimic than girls from wealthy families.
- From 1999 to 2009, the number of men hospitalized for an eating disorder-related cause increased by 53%.
- In a survey of college students, transgender students were significantly more likely than members of any other group to report an eating disorder diagnosis in the past year.
- A study of 2,822 students on a large university campus found that 3.6% of males had positive screens for eating disorders. The female-to-male ratio was 3-to-1.
- https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
"This Gendered Body: Living with an Eating Disorder and Finding My Voice as a Queer Nonbinary Person"
Athletes & Eating Disorders
Involvement in organized sports can offer many benefits, such as improved self-esteem and body image, and encouragement for individuals to remain active throughout their lives. Athletic competition, however, can also be a factor contributing to severe psychological and physical stress.
When the pressures of athletic competition are added to an existing cultural emphasis on thinness, the risks increase for athletes to develop disordered eating.
Risk Factors for Athletes:
- Sports that emphasize appearance, weight requirements or muscularity. For example: gymnastics, diving, bodybuilding or wrestling.
- Sports that focus on the individual rather than the entire team. For example: gymnastics, running, figure skating, dance or diving, versus teams sports such as basketball or soccer.
- Endurance sports such as track and field/running, swimming.
- Overvalued belief that lower body weight will improve performance.
- Training for a sport since childhood or being an elite athlete.
- Low self-esteem; family dysfunction (including parents who live through the success of their child in sport); families with eating disorders; chronic dieting; history of physical or sexual abuse; peer, family and cultural pressures to be thin, and other traumatic life experiences.
Compulsive Exercise
Compulsive exercise is not a recognized clinical diagnosis in the DSM-5, but many people struggle with symptoms associated with this term. Symptoms include:
- Exercise that significantly interferes with important activities, occurs at inappropriate times or in inappropriate settings, or when the individual continues to exercise despite injury or other medical complications.
- Intense anxiety, depression and/or distress if unable to exercise.
- Discomfort with rest or inactivity.
- Exercise used to manage emotions.
- Exercise as a means of purging.
- Exercise as permission to eat.
- Exercise that is secretive or hidden.
- Feeling as though you are not good enough, fast enough or not pushing hard enough during a period of exercise.
Warning Signs
- Overtraining.
- Exercise takes place at inappropriate times and places.
- Exercise takes place despite injury or fatigue.
- Depression, anxiety and/or irritability.
- Feeling guilty if not exercising or if a workout is missed.
- Withdrawal from friends and family.
Health Consequences
- Bone density loss.
- Loss of menstrual cycle (in women).
- Female Athlete Triad (in women).
- Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).
- Persistent muscle soreness.
- Chronic bone & joint pain.
- Increased incidence of injury (overuse injuries, stress fractures, etc.)
- Persistent fatigue and sluggishness.
- Altered resting heart rate.
- Increased frequency of illness & upper respiratory infections.
Counseling Services
Making an appointment is easy! Calling is the fastest way to schedule an appointment, but you can also visit our office or send us an email!
Current Staff:
Janell McGruder – Director, Counselor
Megan Downs – Assistant Director, Counselor
Cody Maddock – Counselor
Claire Palmer – Intake Coordinator
Vicki Swedlund - Administrative Assistant
Email: counseling@knox.edu
Website: https://www.knox.edu/offices/health-and-counseling-center/counseling-services
Location: Furrow Hall 175 West Knox St.
Phone: 309-341-7492
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knoxcollegecounselingservices/