The Seton Hill University (SHU) Social Work Program, in partnership with United Way of Westmoreland County and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC), presented �I Am Not Who You See: Understanding and Treating Eating Disorders� in the SHU Administration Building on April 20, 2006.
Representatives from the WPIC explored various types of eating disorders, the cultural implications of these diseases and various awareness and treatment methods in light of new scholarship.
The audience of around 50 people was predominantly social work professionals. Around 10 SHU students also attended.
By Amanda Cochran,
Editor-in-Chief
The Seton Hill University (SHU) Social Work Program, in partnership with United Way of Westmoreland County and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC), presented �I Am Not Who You See: Understanding and Treating Eating Disorders� in the SHU Administration Building on April 20, 2006.
Representatives from the WPIC explored various types of eating disorders, the cultural implications of these diseases and various awareness and treatment methods in light of new scholarship.
The audience of around 50 people was predominantly social work professionals. Around 10 SHU students also attended.
Andrea Ansell, a junior, is a family and consumer science major. Ansell said the lecture’s social and family implications were �very interesting.�
�The presentation overall broadened my understanding and knowledge about eating disorders,� she added.
Among the topics discussed Amy E. Mueller, program coordinator of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the WPIC, noted that anorexia is not a new disease. Anorexia has references all the way back to the 13th and 16th centuries. Bulimia, however, is a more recent disease, which finds its documented origins in the 1940’s to 1960�s. Both of these diseases, Mueller said, are affecting younger children more than ever.
According to the research presented, only .5 to one percent of the national population suffers from Anorexia Nervosa, but it receives the most attention because, as Mueller said, the media spotlight often falls on females in the fashion and broadcasting industries that must keep up appearances due to employment purposes. In fact, Bulimia, affects more Americans-one to three percent of the population.
Both men and women are affected by eating disorders, but cases are more prevalent in women. Anorexia and Bulimia often affect men who are �involved in some athletic activity to enhance performance based on weight.�
Audience members like Jennifer Sherbo were surprised when they heard research by Liz McCabe, clinical administrator of eating disorders and behavioral medicine and director of social work at the WPIC, stating that the average model wears clothing sized zero to two.
�I thought that the information given on the ideal female body versus the model body was interesting and shocking,� Sherbo said. �Not everyone knows the average woman is a size 12 to 14. Maybe it would help everyone to have this type of information.�
McCabe addressed social norms that have changed the ideal weight of women from the curvy shape of Marilyn Monroe to the linear body shape of Twiggy in the sixties.
She said that as Americans grow heavier, the ideals as expressed in the Miss America pageants� contestants and the Playboy centerfolds� models weights decrease each year.
�There’s a growing divide between this idea of what women actually look like…it’s out of whack with our world,� McCabe said. �There’s lot of magical thinking that goes along with (eating disorders).�
She added that the socio-cultural factor isn’tenough to cause a problem, but paired with a psychological imbalance and �you get an eating disorder.�
Warning signs include obsessive calorie counting, label reading and talking about food, as well as rigid eating rituals or routines, among others.
Mueller said that, �several (of these signs) need to be seen for someone to be concerned.�
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