The University of Colorado at Boulder is participating in a weeklong national event starting Feb. 23 designed to bring attention to the epidemic of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction issues that plague huge numbers of college-aged women and men.
Felicia Greher, eating disorder coordinator at CU-Boulder's Counseling and Psychological Services, said eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder and are strongly present on college campuses.
"It is estimated that 10 million females and one million men struggle with an eating disorder in this country," said Greher. "Many more struggle with body dissatisfaction and sub-clinical eating disorders."
Despite efforts like this week's series of events, eating disorders continue to be a problem for people all the way from middle school to middle age and affect every size, gender, race and ethnicity.
"It think it's gotten worse," said Alisa Shanks, eating disorders clinician and program coordinator at the Wardenburg Health Center. "For women the pressures are similar but the thin ideal has gotten thinner. It used to be that a thin size or shape was OK. Now it's more of an anorexic size."
Men, too, are feeling the effects of a body-obsessed culture that often values looks over all else.
"For men there's a lot more pressure around being big and muscled," Shanks said.
Greher said 10 percent of all eating disorders occur in men.
For both men and women, college is a hard time when it comes to eating and body image issues.
"Eating disorders have a bimodal onset," said Greher. "It tends to manifest at two peak periods: puberty and college. There are a lot of risk factors associated with college life."
Efforts to treat eating disorders are geared toward helping students gain self-esteem.
"Eating disorders really aren't about the food," said Shanks. "It's about self-worth. It's one area they can feel mastery. For us the goal is about figuring out how we can find mastery somewhere else."
For a schedule of events visit /.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information call Counseling and Psychological Services at 303-492-6766.