Eating disorders

who is the "queen of eating disorders"?

I saw Fleshman's reported call for a forum to discuss eating disorders. Having seen many girls go through hell trying to figure themselves out, I wonder if Fleshman may have a good idea.

How do you handle a kid with a suspected eating disorder? Do you talk about disorders in general to the entire team? Do you try to intervene? Do you have weigh-ins with all of the runners?

I know that the college coaches go crazy over this issue.

ummmm queen of eating disorders, duh...amber trotter

Fleshman has a great idea. People (on this board and elsewhere) treat eating disorders like some sort of character flaw rather than a disease, and end up refusing to discuss it. Which is more than half the problem in these cases, anyway. Although let's face it, for people in the throes of an eating disorder, generic discussion will not get through to them.

Hard as it is, the coach still would have an easier time getting through to their team than a forum. I would think the biggest nightmare would be trying to convince an athlete they had a problem, having them drop off the team, but keep running and not eating, and just going downhill without anyone around to help them.

Talking to the entire team about eating disorders is a great start. So many times, it is considered to be a "don't ask don't tell problem so many teammates just ignore it. A team discussion would certainly open up the communication lines.

As far as weigh ins, don't do it. They do more harm than good. It puts entirely too much pressure on the runner to be equal to or lower than the last measurement.

Lastly, as a coach you must intervene. This is not a disease that most people will request help for, much of the time, they fail to see that they even have a problem. They will run on little to no fuel as long as people allow them to. We would never let an athlete run thru a stress fracture and they should never be allowed to run thru a disease as damaging as an eating disorder.

I know of two college coaches that weigh the girls every XX days. If they are Under weight, they don't run.

Stanfan...

You speak as if people with eating disorders are sex offenders and need to be "outed" to achieve health. Ever heard of these groups?

Alcoholics Anonymous

AlAnon

Narcotics Anonymous

Overeaters Anonymous

etc.

One of the keys to these groups is that they allow people to discuss their problems in a private, anonymous forum without the judgements and analysis of armchair psychologists like yourself. Your assumption that just because someone is skinny and still running means they aren't undergoing treatment is ignorant.

Is there something wrong with what Lauren Fleshman said? I don't think so. I think there should be some open discussion among distance runners about the causes and results of eating disorders, but I surely don't think that making accusatorial comments and assigning catty names like "Queen of Eating Disorders" is what she had in mind.

Bite me!

Catty comments, no. But I do think that there should be nothing wrong with pointing out publicly if there is significant visual evidence that someone is suffering from dramatic weight loss. If the person was sick with anything else, would it be wrong to point it out?

Shoot, some of the women discussed on this or other forums, if they didn't have an eating disorder, then they have cancer. Either way, better to bring it to someone's attention than pretend it's not there.

And frankly, not only the sufferer but sometimes those around them are in denial. A public recognition of a possible problem isn't the best way to bring them around, but it's better than ignoring it. Obviously, it's better if those around the person can recognize it.

Idealist,

You name certainly suits you. If these boards were nothing but nurturing, open discussions with no anonymity and no hidden agendas, then I would agree with you. The tone taken by 95% of the posts surrounding eating disorder sufferers is definitely not kind. It's more of a "hey, look at that freaky skinny girl -- she's a bitch for being so skinny". Go back and read the barely disguised malice in the posts that haven't been deleted. "Queen of Eating Disorders", You think that's constructive???

It's also ludicrous to assert that if a bunch of idiots who may or may not even have ever spoken with athlete x can have an affect. If the girl's family, her coaches, her teammates, her friends, her guidance counselor, opposing coaches, or her classmates haven't noticed and pointed anything out, then she must live in the land of the blind.

As someone who has been close to at least one of the situations normally brought up on this topic, I can tell you that even people who are frequently discussed and are still running are in therapy or have been in therapy, and most have supportive teammates and coaches who want to see them get better.

I urge anyone who thinks it necessary to post something on this, the most public of running forums, about a potential eating disorder, to instead email or call the athletic department or track office and voice your concerns. Chances are more coaches read their own email than they do the LetsRun.com message board. At least if it's in their email and they know the situation is being handled, they can simply click "delete" and reply "no comment" instead of having a girl's health issues aired in a public forum.

That's our problem in this country, we over analysis the shit out of everything. I'm fat, oh it's because I got suppressed hatred of my parents, bullcrap, you're fat because you eat too damn much. I'm too skinny, it's because of all the fashion magazines and their emphasis on being thin. No, you don't eat enough. People need to take responsibility for themselves.

I guess I've seen the other side of what you've seen. Namely, a girl's own mother didn't realize her daughter was near death until someone else stopped by, took one look at her, and took her to the hospital where she was kept under observation because she was so thin her heartbeat was dangerously irregular.

Most of the posters I've read who have claimed to gone through anorexia or bulimia have said that they had to stop running completely to get through it. I think that's where the perception that if someone is still running competitively, they're not getting help comes from.

Like I said, a message board is not the best place, and I'm sure Ms. Fleshman didn't have LetsRun in mind. Probably a moderated board like the one on Fast-Women would be better. But there is also a perception that mentioning the problem at all is in bad taste, and a knee jerk reaction against even the positive comments. Not every comment on someone having an eating disorder is a malicious one, but some people seem to think so.

If the person is getting helped, they don't even have to read the board, much less click "delete" on emails. But maybe someone on else on the boards will see themselves in that person, and get help.

Yeah, I guess I do deserve my nickname.