This is eating disorders awareness week. This letter is to give brief information about eating disorders and to describe programs available to students during the week.

Anorexia Nervosa is diagnosed when a person’s diet threatens her health and even her life. An anorexic person will lose at least 20 percent of her original body weight. She is obsessed with thinness and terrified of gaining weight. Most of her life centers around trying not to eat.

When someone eats a large number of calories at once, then tries to purge the calories through vomiting, laxative abuse, diuretic abuse and/or compulsive exercising, they may be diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa. A bulimic person also feels obsessed with food and body weight.

Low self_esteem, shame, social isolation and a whole host of medical complications are associated with Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa.

There is help for students with eating disorders, and people who care about them. A support group meets every Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the University Resources for Women, on the corner of Lincoln Highway and Normal Rd. Usually, the person who has the eating disorder attends ANAD. But friends and family can also receive support and education—even if the person with the eating disorder will not attend.

A panel discussion about Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa will also be held this week. Thursday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. will be a time to ask a physician, a counselor, a nutritionist and people who have eating disorders the questions that you may have in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Both the support group and the panel discussion are free and open to the public. Please take advantage of these resources. For more information, call 753_1206.

Maria L. Rago, M.A.

Counseling and Student

Development Center