This year marks the 30th anniversary of Eating Disorder Awareness Week. The event, which runs from Feb.1 to 7, was created by the National Eating Disorder Information Centre as a “public awareness campaign that educates, informs and engages Canadians to talk about eating disorders.” 

The University of Winnipeg is taking part, hosting a number of events and activities to ensure the conversation around disordered eating happens on campus.

Jill Hodgson-McConnell, the event’s organizer, works as the U of W’s intake manager and manages the University’s Health and Wellness Peer Educators. Hodgson-McConnell says it’s vitally important to address eating disorders on university campuses.

“People in the post-secondary age group aren’t necessarily at a higher risk,” Hodgson-McConnell explains, “but if you’re having difficulty with disordered eating in university, it’s interfering more with your life plan. It’s also more acknowledged at this time in people’s lives. We see more young people seeking support.” 

Hodgson-McConnell and her peer educators have peppered the week with fun and informal events that address issues of body image and self-esteem. 

“We’re hosting free fitness classes at the Duckworth Centre. We’re doing the motivational Love Yourself Graffiti Project in some of the washrooms. We’re doing a Self-Love Photo Project, and what we’re calling the $4 Self-Love Smoothie at the new smoothie bar. It’s all stuff promoting self-compassion and looking after ourselves in healthy manners.” 

At the center of the week’s events is the Wellness Forum on Eating Disorders, a presentation featuring speeches from Women’s Health Clinic (WHC) counsellor Lisa Naylor and dietician Lindsey Mazur.

“[The event] is going to be a general information session, not just for people who have experienced an eating disorder,” says Naylor, who counsels in WHC’s Provincial Eating Disorder Prevention and Recovery Program. “The idea is that everybody knows somebody, and maybe they can learn how to help someone in their life.”

 Naylor says she hopes to address some more nuanced issues surrounding disordered eating. 

“We’ll talk about the functions and cost of an eating disorder. Eating disorders are a coping strategy. It’s something people develop to help them get through something, it serves some function or purpose. But eventually the costs of an eating disorder outweigh any good it may have brought into an individual’s life. That’s when people seek help.”

With increased attention being paid to mental health in recent years, Naylor says there’s still plenty of room to talk about eating disorders. 

“There are elements of an eating-disordered culture, not just individuals. A lot of disordered behaviors, like controls around food, obsessive diet and exercising, are really normalized culturally. 

Naylor mentions that it’s considered to be a good thing to control your weight or go to the gym six times a week, yet when someone acknowledges a disorder stigmas come up. 

“That kind of all-or-nothing thinking is a warning sign. Perfectionism around food, the idea of ‘I can’t eat carbs unless I’ve worked out today.’ Or someone who starts a diet every week, but spends the weekend bingeing to get rid of food first. Those are definite symptoms.”

The Wellness Forum on Eating Disorders takes place Feb. 4 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall. Students seeking help for eating disorders can find on-campus resources at Klinic.

Published in Volume 69, Number 18 of The Uniter (January 28, 2015)