Eating
Disorders
Stress Management for Bulimia
Feb 18, 2004 -- UT study hopes to relieve the stress of weight for people
with eating disorders.
"Shelley," 20, has been battling
bulimia for four years. She's on her
way to recovery,
but it's been a slow process.
"That's the bad thing about this. People don't realize that this
consumes your life," she said. "I always thought, well, I can quit. Once I
got to college I'm going to quit. But its not that easy at all."
For Shelley, daily weigh-ins became a ritual. The numbers on the scale were
either her best friend or her worst enemy.
"If I was a couple pounds over I wouldn't eat that much that day or
something. And even when I binged, I got on the scale and if it was so high, I
would purge to get it back down lower," she said.
She is by no means alone. Experts estimate that up to 12 percent of
college-age women suffer from some form of eating disorders.
Bad eating
habits and little exercise can cause weight gain. Couple those with bad
coping skills and the cycle of binging and purging can easily start.
UT researcher Emily Hoffman is spearheading a new study to help bulimics diet
more effectively.
"Traditional treatments really try to turn down that dieting behavior and
what we're actually doing to some extent is saying it's OK to diet as long as
you do it in a healthy way and you can have the body you've always wanted, if
you're doing it in a healthy manner," Hoffman said.
Researchers hope to teach women stress management and coping skills.
"So, rather than reach for the pint of Ben and Jerry's, they're walking
around town lake or taking a bubble bath, something like that that's an
alternative," she said.
Hopefully studies like this can help Shelly and others come out of the
shadows, eliminating the
guilt and
shame that comes with the disorder.
UT researchers are looking for female volunteers to participate in their
Healthy Living Study. For more information, call (512) 232-7171.
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