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Nicole Bourquin was 12 years old and had just started maturing when two coaches suggested she lose 5 pounds. A competitive gymnast, she met the challenge and was rewarded with praise for her efforts. “Wow, you look great.” And, “I wish I had that much will power.” These were among the affirmations she received. But the preteen didn’t stop there. Within three months, her weight had dropped to 80 pounds. Two months later, she weighed 73 pounds and was told to gain 5 pounds or she would be put in the hospital. She added the weight to avoid being admitted. Several months later, though, she started purging her food. “I always went from one extreme to another,” she says. “I would always restrict or eat and throw up. It was one or the other.” That was 25 years ago before singer Karen Carpenter’s death at the age of 32 brought awareness to eating disorders. Today, Bourquin is an Orange County-based therapist, specializing in the treatment of athletes with eating disorders. She is also executive director of the Eating Disorder Foundation of Orange County, which she founded in March 2005. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to the awareness and prevention of eating disorders through education in local schools, businesses and sports organizations. Its goal is to educate children on the realities of eating disorders before an eating disorder develops. A true obsession Defined as a condition that causes a person to spend most of their waking hours thinking and thinking some more about food, weight, calories or body image, these conditions may cause one to binge eat (bulimia nervosa), starve themselves (anorexia nervosa), or binge and purge (bulimia nervosa). As many as 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States are fighting a life-and-death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, according to statistics from the National Eating Disorders Association. Approximately 25 million more struggle with binge eating disorders. And the numbers are rising. The incidence of bulimia in 10- to 39-year-olds, for example, tripled between 1988 and 1993. Female adolescents represent the population group most affected with the peak period of onset seen between 16 and 18 years old, according to data from the National Institute of Health. Particularly vulnerable are athletes whose sports require a certain amount of leanness or lightness, such as gymnastics, dance and figure skating, or ones that have a weight class, like wrestling. The onset is driven by a combination of factors, including low self-esteem, loneliness, troubled family and interpersonal relationships, abuse and a host of others. “Eating disorders are so complex that we will never have all the answers. We’ll never be able to tell you all the signs,” says Bourquin. “Every single individual case is completely individual. It’s something that we work so hard to understand, yet we will never be able to fully understand it.” Bourquin believes the single most important step that parents can take to help ward off an eating disorder is to look at their own patterns. What is your eating habit? What’s your body image like? What type of self-talk do you use? Mirrors talk back “ So much of the time, as women, we’re complaining about what our bodies look like or we’re on some kind of diet. Well, our kids hear that. So we have to think about how we feel about our bodies and what do we role model for our kids.” HealthyPlace.com offers these additional tips from Abigail Natenshon, author of “When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder,” to help prevent eating disorders and help your child to appreciate his or her body. o Connect during meal times with your child. o Don’t equate thinness with happiness. o Praise your child for what she does, not how she looks. o Discourage extreme or obsessive behavior of any kind. o Ask your daughter to make a list of positive attributes not related to her body or appearance. o Help her become a good problem-solver. Education should begin in the elementary school years, says Bourquin. By the time youth are in high school, preventive measures are too late. For more information on eating disorders, visit www.nationaleatingdisorders.org or www.edfoc.org Sandy Bennett is managing editor of OC Family Magazine. |
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