🚀 go-pugleaf

Georgia Tech Joins National Effort to Promote 
Eating Disorder Awareness

    Do you or your friends exercise compulsively 
and count calories in an effort to lose weight and
be extremely thin?  Does your roommate run to the 
bathroom to throw up after a big meal?  Is your
girlfriend always dieting and thinking about the
food she eats?  These behaviors are all signs that
you or your friend may have an eating disorder.  
Before these illnesses get out of hand, learn how
to get help.
     Georgia Tech will join hundreds of colleges
across the country in the first ever National
Eating Disorders Screening Program (NEDSP) during
eating disorders awareness week, February 5 - 11,
1996.  Georgia Tech will hold four free programs,
February 6th and 7th, at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
at the Student Success Center Auditorium.  All
screenings are free and anonymous.
     NEDSP is a public outreach effort designed
to teach students about eating disorders and 
direct those in need toward treatment.  The program
provides the Georgia Tech community with the opportunity
to hear an educational presentation on eating disorders,
complete a screening questionnaire, and meet one-on-one
with a health care professional.  Those who show
symptoms of an eating disorder will be encouraged to
make an appointment for a full evaluation.
     Over 600 U.S. Colleges and Universities will be
participating in the screening program.  In order to 
reach as many students as possible, athletic departments,
sororities and other collegiate organizations will be 
encouraging members to go to the screenings as a team 
or group activity.  Students are also encouraged to bring 
a friend if they are concerned about his or her eating 
behavior.
     Eating disorders are illnesses that are associated
with severe body image distortion and an obsession with
weight.  Sufferers are terrified of gaining weight and
continue to diet or binge and purge even as their mental
and physical health deteriorate.  In addition to depression
and substance abuse disorders, victims of eating disorders 
can also develop heart problems, osteoporosis, and reproductive
difficulties.  Left unchecked, eating disorders can kill.
    "Four to five percent of all female college students
suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, 
and at least five times as many engage in substantially
disordered eating behaviors," said David B. Herzog, M.D, 
Director of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center and 
Scientific Director of NEDSP.  "Although there is a 
preponderance of women with eating disorders, men are 
also susceptible and can suffer similar complications.  Five 
to ten percent of all people who are eating disordered are
men."
     

Jan Price, MSW, CEAP
Faculty & Staff Assistance Program
fsap@ohr.gatech.edu
(404)894-1225