Couple Speaks of Daughter's Fatal Eating Disorder

May 5, 2004 - The year she died of complications from bulimia, 19-year-old Andrea Smeltzer wrote the following lines: "I have an eating disorder/it is not had or did or used to/it is present tense."

Now, five years later, her parents, Doris and Tom Smeltzer, are speaking at conferences, schools and universities around the country about eating disorders. The Smeltzers, who are Napa residents, are speaking here Thursday night at a program at Vintage High School. Andrea was a graduate of Vintage High.

"My eyes have been brutally opened," said Doris Smeltzer, reflecting on the years since her daughter's death. "I was as dissatisfied with my body and my own abilities as my daughter was with hers." Smeltzer said the key to preventing eating disorders is for parents to model healthy behavior by loving themselves as much as they love their children.

Eating disorders are on the rise, start at a younger age than ever before, and impact more men than was previously thought, she said.

The couple will speak about many facets of eating disorders, including factors that lead to them, the warning signs, and approaching a person who may be suffering from one. Effective treatment options will also be discussed.

"They kill more than any other psychiatric disorder, and yet many people assume they are a passing phase of spoiled, white, middle-class females," Doris Smeltzer said. "The numbers are out there. It crosses all racial, educational and economic levels."

Men now account for 30 percent of those with eating disorders, Smeltzer said. The culture in the United States is now pressuring men, in addition to women, to strive for perfection, she said.

Doris Smeltzer, a teacher, works on character education and bullying prevention for Napa Valley Unified School District. Tom Smeltzer, a former elementary school principal, is a welding instructor and a program coordinator at Napa Valley College.

"I would love if that room were filled with every person who is over 12 in Napa," said Doris Smeltzer. The event runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., in the library at Vintage High School, 1375 Trower Ave.

The couple runs an organization dedicated to sharing information about eating disorders, Andrea's Voice. They have developed a Web site in their daughter's honor with helpful information about eating disorders, andreasvoice.org.

The Vintage High School Peer Support group is sponsoring the free event.

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• Young Men Are Struggling With Eating Disorders

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