Eating Disorders

Posted by Lori Henry

Eating disorders can be a scary thing for parents and loved ones to deal with. Not only is your daughter/son/wife/husband, etc. seriously harming themselves, you often feel you have no idea how to help them.

Before things get to this stage, there are warning signs and symptoms that might help you detect an eating disorder and get treatment early.

I’ve written three articles on the subject that I hope will be useful:

Building Self Esteem in Children

Eating Disorder Symptoms

Preventing Eating Disorders

Posted by Lori Henry

The conundrum that is Dove has a new commercial ad for their positive body image Campaign for Real Beauty project. They sell necessities like body wash, soap, shampoo and deodorant, but also beauty products like firming and lifting lotions. Does their positive campaign make them a better company to buy from?

This week their newest advertisement was released, titled, Onslaught. In the same vein as Jean Kilbourne’s work, her study that people see an average of 3,000 ads a day, the Dove video starts on an innocent girl looking and smiling into the camera. Then the “onslaught” begins.

Images of billboards, transit ads, infomercials, magazine covers, mannequins, pill bottles, posters, food, gyms, plastic surgery and purging are flashed onto the screen at lightening speed. The end message reads, “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.”

It’s an interesting angle, as Dove is a huge part of the beauty industry. But the commercial is effective and I certainly won’t complain about companies going in this direction. We just have to remember that Dove is a multi-million dollar beauty business as well.

Posted by Lori Henry

The ad campaign that has sparked even more controversy than the Apple ad or any other in recent history, is Nolita’s “No Anorexia” featuring French former actress and model Isabelle Caro.

She only weighs 62.8 pounds and has suffered from anorexia for 15 years. In her 20’s, she posed for Oliviero Toscani’s lens as a way to bring attention to the deadly disease. She hopes with the corresponding Milan Fashion Week and the recent bans on underweight models, she will show others how dangerous an eating disorder is.

Even thought the campaign was approved by the Ministry of Health, it has sparked immense disagreement about whether it’s positive or negative. Photos of an emaciated woman to someone who is starving themselves, only makes them wish they were that thin.

Wow, the photo is pretty shocking. I can’t imagine how much more extreme it would be to walk by it on a large billboard. What strikes me as interesting is that anorexia has become such a big issue for the fashion world, it’s being discussed worldwide and is now even being used by a mainstream fashion ad. That's a good thing if it makes people more aware.

Will the ad cause people with anorexia to become sicker? Will it put eating disorders out in the open to being about awareness? It’ll probably do both.

UPDATE: The ad has been taken down on orders of the mayor of Milan. This affects all city-controlled billboards, although privately owned ones are still up. No official statement as to why has been released, as the controversy is extremely heavy in Italy.

Posted by Lori Henry

The last two articles I published I think are very important. One has to do with treatment options for eating disorders and the other with Osteoporosis and how common it is in people who have been through anorexia or bulimia.

The Treatment Options article goes through all of the choices you can make when going into recovery. From in-patient and outpatient, to group therapy and alternative healing, a short explanation is given for each.

The Osteoporosis article focuses on what the disorder is, as well as its relation to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. It offers advice on how to build bone density, the lack of symptoms that are felt, as well as prevention suggestions.

Enjoy!

Posted by Lori Henry

A doctoral candidate from New York University is conducting a study about an underrepresented topic in eating disorder research. She will be studying how long-term individual psychodynamic psychotherapy facilitates bulimia recovery.

This will be done on a long-term treatment model, which is often left out of such research. The investigation has been approved by NYU’s Human Subject’s Committee. She is searching for 6 more women to complete the study.

Eligibility Criteria

- women aged 21-55

- recovering from bulimia for at least 2 years

- completed at least 2 years of individual psychodynamic psychotherapy

- have not been in psychodynamic treatment for 6 months

- free of bulimia symptoms for the past 6 months

Psychodynamic Treatment Defined

- a focus on gaining psychological insight and perspective about the symptom

- a focus on how the past influences the present

- a focus on examining feelings and reactions to the therapist and therapy relationship

What’s Involved

- 15 minute pre-screen interview

- a 2 hour strictly confidential in person interview about your psychotherapy experience and demographic questionnaire (additional 15 minutes)

- a 15 minute follow up phone interview a month after the study, if needed

- you will receive $25 upon completion

- participation is voluntary

Interested?

Contact (781) 307-8478 or email mailto:ttotomoriarty@msn.com with your name, phone number and the best time to reach you. Mention the “Psychodynamic Treatment Study for Bulimia.”

Posted by Lori Henry

I went to a Vancouver Fringe Festival show last night that I was, to be honest, hesitant about. Called “Anorexican,” it was a comedy about eating disorders. Scary if done wrong but brilliant if done right. And brilliant it was.

Introducing anorexia as an island, it’s located beside bulimia and the small landmass of orthorexia. Statistics are used to explain the “population” that lives there, the rate of “immigration” and even the “tourist industry.” Becky Johnson then assumes a multitude of characters to show eating disorders from different perspectives, ages and walks of life.

The laugh-out-loud moments are often followed by still silence from the audience. Her dynamic presence keeps the show flowing along smoothly as each character surprises the crowd with shocking comments that are so normal to an anorexic.

The research done is impeccable and her understanding of the disorders runs deep. Her expert touch of comedy makes the overall effect extremely powerful, even to those who clearly had little knowledge of anorexia.

Becky has already received an award for the show, the Spotlight Award for Outstanding Performance. It was given at the world premier of the show at the 2007 SummerWorks Theatre Festival in Toronto.

Check out her show web site here.

And find out more about her non-eating disorder-related endevors here.

Posted by Lori Henry

Britney Spears has finally had her “comeback” show, performing for the MTV Video Music Awards. The critics have been harsh about her unrehearsed dancing and lame energy, but they comment the most ruthlessly on her weight.

I didn’t actually see the performance but I’ve looked at a few of the photos from it. She’s fat?! Even wearing only a black bikini, stilettos and fishnets, she’s certainly not “bulging” or “pudgy.”

It’s beyond belief that women in the entertainment industry are so nitpicked. I’m not a fan of Britney, but give her some slack! As for the comments that she wasn’t fit to wear what she did, who decides who’s allowed to wear what based on the amount of fat on their bodies?

It blows my mind everyday the nerve of people to be so judgemental and cruel. How could you make your living at making such negative statements about people?

But journalists do it everyday, as do talk show hosts and others in the entertainment industry. We must certainly have something else more important to say.

Posted by Lori Henry

I was recently contacted by a lovely woman who has launched a company dedicated to helping women love their bodies. Great concept!

It’s called First Ourselves and it males self care a top priority.

Mission:

To help women become free and clear: free to use their talents and passions to change the world, instead of using them to change the size of their butt.

Karly is the founder and has been through dieting and an eating disorder. Her enthusiasm for the cause is infectious and it’s worth taking a look at what she’s up to.

Her site is filled with positive inspiration and a great blog. Book recommendations are focused on ones that are fulfilling and motivating to be more connected to ourselves, rather than how to lose weight.

She also has a “Love your Body Series” in which there are numerous posts encouraging women, step by step, how to take back their lives from the dieting mindset.

You can find her website here.

Posted by Lori Henry

Things have been busy here in Vancouver. I’m in the midst of co-organizing a HUGE eating disorder event. We’re raising funds to help people who cannot afford treatment.

A bursary (we hope many more than 1) will be given to individuals who have applied. They will then get $2800 worth of private counselling with the therapist of their choice.

It’s all very exciting, but I do need your help. Please spread the word to everyone you know, whether near Vancouver or not. We have international speakers and guests coming from out of town.

Help us make a difference in the lives of so many who are struggling. Read my article about the event here and visit the event website for more info (where you can also apply for a bursary).

If you need an email template to send out to your contacts, please email me at eatingdisorders @ suite101.com and I’ll send one to you. Thanks for your support!

Posted by Lori Henry

Recently, Apple came out with an ad campaign for their new iMac. It showed a few screens with images of people smiling and having fun. The tagline "The New iMac. You Can't be Too Thin. Or Too Powerful" is written near the top. Obviously this was going to upset people and offend them it did.

A recovered anorexic wrote an open letter in the Huffington Post about how upset she was about the campaign. The Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness wrote a very public and highly publicized letter to Apple stating how unresponsible their ad was.

Within days, the ad on the Apple web site disappeared. It wasn't announced publicly, as far as I know, so I'm not sure what the company's response was to the issue. Along with the above letters, there were hundreds of blog posts and articles written in opposition to the campaign. Perhaps Apple realized how much controversy they were creating? Or perhaps they planned the attention for PR reasons?

We'll see if they broadcast an official statement any time soon.