Its not an athlete issue only. You can no ore tell someone to just start eating than you can tell them to just not be depressed. Its a mental health issue. People get EDs that are not playing any sports. They are indeed adults, but as a coach you have to be pretty forward about referring anyone who is underfueling to support system.
I never said or implied it was only an athlete issue, nor did I say or imply that the solution is to tell them "just start eating." I quite literally said adults in their life need to "do the right thing and get these kids the help they deserve."
As I've mentioned in my original post and various responses, EDs are a mental health issue, and I have suffered from an ED that led to injury, illness, dulling of my personality, and generally poor quality of life.
What does eating have to do with (ED) erectile dysfunction ?
I see the same issue for many of the top runners, female and male included in Oregon. So thin and lots of chatter of vomitting and not eating enough. Can't be healthy
So many pros are super thin - look at the start line of a Diamond league 5k or 10k. I think it is okay if the focus is on performance. It is not mental health if the goal is to be fast. Don't bring up injury because injuries occur to everyone. There are super thin pros with very long careers who learn how to ride that line.
Just labeling every hardcore lean wolf as having a ED is shaming. Just like when some office coworker mocks you for being skinny and running 70+ mpw. They don't understand.
my daugher went through anorexia nervosa, so I feel compelled to chime in on the subject.
I can tell you, without hesitation, that getting "help" is easier said than done. Most therapists don't want to touch these cases, because they don't know what to do. In-patient facilities are not effective long term. As a matter of fact, patients come out of those places worse off mentally than when they were checked in.
I think it is presumptuous to think that parents and coaches are doing nothing to intervene. Sometimes, running is the only happiness these young athletes can grasp on to.
All I'm saying is, don't be so quick to judge. You don't know the whole story.
I don't think people are quick to judge...they are quick to note that there's probably an issue.
I was a fat kid growing up (male) and found running as a way to lose weight. As a Freshman I was 5 foot 5 and 160 pounds, and as a sophomore I was 6 foot 2 and 145. I wrote down every item of food I ate, and was hungry a lot of the time. I had an OK sophomore XC season, but lost my whole junior year to a stress fracture....big surprise
By the time I was 18, I had my diet figured out and running was only positive. As an adult, I've stayed a healthy weight, usually 160-165, and have raced well. During one big marathon buildup, I dropped back down to 150, and actually performed worse.
I never reached the point of a diagnosable ED, but I could totally see how fast it can happen, whether it be a misaligned self image, or the pursuit to get faster. Either way, when someone looks unhealthy, they probably are.
Should national events like NXR and Footlocker Regionals automatically test the 10 or so finishers that would advance to Nationals, and block them if they fail? This would encourage them to be screened earlier in the season as well. And it would help balance the tendency to overvalue an athlete's race results relative to their health.
This is not about "shaming". It is about helping the athletes avoid very significant health risks. We know these top athletes are at high risk. Screening could be done on males as well.
Nothing makes me more irate than watching you pigs on this site think you are actually "helping" when you sit and talk about a specific girl's body - ESPECIALLY A MINOR!!! It's seriously the most inappropriate sh*t ever. If you're going to talk about the general topic of athletes with eating disorders, go ahead, but do so with some actual advice that may be CONSTRUCTIVE... And DO NOT mention a female minor by name! How f*cked up are you people!?
Those of you who just chime in to say something like, "whoa! She's scary thin" and, "she needs help" - you need to fight your urge to click "post reply". You're doing nothing to help. In fact, you're just showing that you're an a$hole. You may be totally correct in your assessment that these athletes may be headed towards health issues, but expressing that by talking trash about a specific young girl's body is disgusting - especially considering that most of the comments are probably from grown men.
If you're acknowledging that an Eating Disorder is a sickness or some kind of mental disorder, and you're going to post crap that these young girls may see, you're only creating a new problem for them. I guarantee you, they're fighting to get healthier, whether you tell them to or not.
Respectfully, I disagree. I was the first poster to name the specific athlete this and many threads is about. I do not regret it, though it has been removed.
Every major running outlet- citius, Runnerspace, milesplit etc is actively profiting of these, mainly female, performances (often, they are even tagging their personal accounts in the post). Conversely, these, mainly female, athletes become household names because of their limited success and are quickly replaced by other talented athletes who burn up too quickly with unsustainable eating practices.
And why? No one steps in, hence the name of the thread.
Should national events like NXR and Footlocker Regionals automatically test the 10 or so finishers that would advance to Nationals, and block them if they fail? This would encourage them to be screened earlier in the season as well. And it would help balance the tendency to overvalue an athlete's race results relative to their health.
This is not about "shaming". It is about helping the athletes avoid very significant health risks. We know these top athletes are at high risk. Screening could be done on males as well.
The intention is great, but RED-S is such an ambiguous and multifaceted syndrome with a million different metrics that qualify a person to be diagnosed.
While it is certainly a real syndrome, it is still so misunderstood and studied that it almost feels inappropriate to use. Experts disagree on terminology and symptoms, but the overarching issue is the same: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports- why this happens is still debated, though the key factors (underfuleing) are apparent.
I don't think Nike, FL etc would touch that with a 10-foot-pole. And good luck trying to fight the hordes of parents and agents who would put up a stink if their kid got blocked (their child could be 30lbs underweight with no period and two femoral stress fractures and they would still want them to run).
While I agree Nike / FL likely does not want to call attention to REDS type health risks in NXR/NXN, that might change if there was more public awareness.
As for parents, seeing their child is considered "at risk" on the basis of a simple standard like weight for their height, amenorrhea, or stress fracture is likely in my view to raise their awareness, rather than make them protest. I agree there are some parents who will lean the other way. But seeing their kid does not pass a public standard may help bring pressure to conform from one of the parents, grandparents, coach, parents of team members, etc.
A difficult part of what I proposed would be to have some credible public entity create the weight for height chart. Maybe the reporting on NXR / FLR entry forms, and correlation to later health events would be a good data source for that chart. The data would not be available to the general public, but to researchers on HIPAA terms.
A difficult part of what I proposed would be to have some credible public entity create the weight for height chart. Maybe the reporting on NXR / FLR entry forms, and correlation to later health events would be a good data source for that chart. The data would not be available to the general public, but to researchers on HIPAA terms.
Interesting. Take the names off measurement samples and you get an unbiased and comprehensive sampling of elite athletes in the US. Maybe even bump the sampling to top 20 in each regional race and then all competitors in the final.
Probably quite a bit we could learn about RED-S and the number of males with disordered eating.
I think this is entirely unrealistic, but not a crazy ask. Too much money tied up in the performances of minors unfortunately
and imagine trying to say you can't run because your too small after her mother has died and she has running to keep her occupied. I don't think so. I'm sure they're dealing with this but it's obviously a sensitive issue.
I saw stride report celebrating the accomplishments of a HS girl who looked 80 lbs and skin falling off her bones and now she is in college and its even worse and yet she is celebrated becayse she is fast at 80lbs. No one is forcing her to run. But no one is caring for her health either
I saw stride report celebrating the accomplishments of a HS girl who looked 80 lbs and skin falling off her bones and now she is in college and its even worse and yet she is celebrated becayse she is fast at 80lbs. No one is forcing her to run. But no one is caring for her health either
But just today The Stride Report also featured an interview with Angelina Perez, in which both she and the interviewer clearly celebrate her recovery from her ED.
So it's not that these media don't recognize that disordered eating is a big problem. They do, but they also seem to have a pretty absolute rule against speculating. I.e., if an athlete doesn't specifically declare that they have an ED, even if it seems very obvious, they won't let suspicions about that shape their coverage in any way.
Is this a good or bad approach? I honestly don't know. You could argue it's fundamentally contradictory; you could also argue they're just trying to stay in their lane and don't see it as their role to "out" people in this sense (esp. since there's never 100% certainty).
One disturbing trend I’ve noticed with the rise of social media is that several high school or college stars with clear or even acknowledged EDs will have a whole social media brand, and sometimes even a separate page for cooking and food. It’s wild to me that parents let their kids use social media this way, as they know they struggle with food and nutrition…
Something that I noticed too about the food pictures they post. The food is often colorful or…beautiful…but its not exactly mouth watering. On actual food content pages, the food makes you want to EAT. The food on their pages looks like a really beautiful decoration.
Parents often protest that they are trying to help, and I do believe they care. But this is something easy that parents can take control of. Kids don’t need a following or a food content page. It’s ridiculous.
I don’t like discussing individuals themselves, but Angelina Perez has got to get offline. I only point her out specifically because I actually think her page might be hurting other athletes who are watching her. She has claimed to be “recoverED” for years now, and it’s just hard to totally believe. The videos of her eating are uncomfortable. She takes the smallest bite of food after looking at what she’s eating several times.
If you are struggling with a mental health issue of any kind and you continue to have an enormous social media presence, I think that’s a huge contradiction to recovery. You need to ger off of social media FIRST.