University of Nebraska Kearney - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Kearney, NE)

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FOOD Can A Drug BULIMIA HAS A VERY SERI- OUS EFFECT ON KSC ... What is a food obsession? Do you have a secret ad- diction to food that ac- tually dominates your life? What is being described as bulimic? Bulimia is a psychological and emo- tional disorder characterized by repeat- ed overeating binges followed by purges of forced vomiting, prolonged fasting, or abuse of laxatives, enemas or diuretics. Gloria Tye, director of student health services, said there are approxi- mately eight or nine students on the KSC campus with either bulimia or an- orexia. Tye added these numbers reflect only those who have stepped forward and are looking for help. “I’m sure there are bulimics and anorectics we aren’t aware of it too, or that go for treatment somewhere other than student health,” said Tye. This disease has a very serious effect on KSC. “People tend to imitate the be- havior of those around them, especially the binging and purging. Often suite- mates and roommates imitate each oth- er,” Tye said. “It is a stressful time for the bulimic, especially emotionally. The energy that they use to binge and purge could be channelled into something more productive. Also, the amount of money spent is stressful for many, added Tye. She said, “I knew of one girl with bu- limia who would drive to all fast food places in Kearney that had a drive-up window and ordered something from ev- ery one. Usually ordering a burger, fries, and a shake or malt. This lasted about one hour, then she would go home to purge.” The causes of bulimia are numerous starting with an obsession to be thin caused by our culture, Tye said. Child- hood conflicts and even heredity can play a part. There are more women bulimics than men. TV media and magazines po- tray women to be thin and shapely. The types of men that tend to be bulimics are dancers, wrestlers and jockeys. These men try to keep their weight down for a specific reason. These are psychological problems on the inside but the affected girls seem to be independent and confident on the outside, Tye noted. They are usually girls coming from white middle-to-upper class families and considered to be the ideal children. The girls are often perfec- tionists with grades nearing 4.0. Bulimics are people pleasers. “They feel that food is a good girls drug,” Tye said. Bulimia can be detected by others through observation. Bulimics tend to have a compulsion with exercise and or habits. They eat huge qualities of food and sometimes withdraw. Withdrawal indicates they are binging and purging. “Bulimics will vomit in places they think people won’t notice: wastebaskets, laundry chutes and sinks. Friends or family members should watch carefully, especially in the bathroom, for vomit that wasn’t cleaned up well. Comfort the person in a kind and loving manner and get them help immediately,” said Tye. Health risks include a chemical im- balance due to vomiting, diuretics and laxatives, cavity proneness from vomit knew of one girl with bu- - ■ limia who would drive to all fast food places in Kearney that had a drive-up window and order something from every one. ” -Tye and the huge amounts of food devoured, and sometimes cases of amenorrhea, which is absence of menstruation. The difference between anorexia and bulimia is the anorectic loses a sub- stantial amount of weight and will usual- ly eat only one banana per day. The Gloria Tye, director of student health services, helps students with health problems such a bulimia. 19

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over again. The home has to go wrong, the church has to go wrong, the commu- nity has to go wrong, his friends have to let him down, not once, but over and over again. They have to make a habit of it! Then, after 14 years of that you may have a good delinquent.” Unlike the concepts introduced by Sigmund Freud which suggest that self- concept is primarily a product of the dra- matic events that have happened to an individual while growing up, “Helping Relationships” suggests a different theory. “We now understand that the most important changes in the self-con- cept probably occur only as a conse- quence of many experiences repeated over long periods of time. The little day- -to-day events repeatedly chipping away at an individual’s feelings produce the most pervasive effects on the self. A child To make a good delinquent - ■ everything has to go wrongf not once, but over and over again, ” -Redl learns that he is acceptable or unaccept- able - not so much from dramatic events as from thousands of little everyday nuances of attitude and feelings picked up from those about him.” How one sees him or herself is what determines attitudes and behaviors. This is why self-concept is so very impor- tant. Marvin S. Spracklen, professor of counseling and educational psychology, talked of the importance of self-concept in relation to applying for a job. When applying for a job, the main objective, of course, is to present yourself as an “okay” person. The problem with this objective, said Spracklen, “is the first person you must sell that idea to is your- self.” Finding a job after college is a big concern for a majority of students and yet there are other students who don’t seem to worry about this at all. Is this yet another problem that can be associated with self-concept? Spracklen presents a similiar idea, “Maybe there is a relation- ship between self-esteem and how you perceive your personal power.” If we don’t have a lot of self-esteem, does that mean we’re doomed? No, of course not. Self-concept is something we all learn through the process of growing, so who is to say that we stopped growing and that the self-concept that we have of ourselves now is going to always stay the same? No one can tell you this; you must decide this for yourself. Changing important ideas and per- ceptions about yourself and your life does take time and is rarely accom- plished quickly. The most important thing to remember is that it can be done. “Helping Relationships” suggests learning to see old experiences in a new and different light. Try using “insight” to help you learn from the past rather than dwelling on it. “Life is not revers- ible; every experience a person has is for- ever. One cannot unexperience what has happened! Every experience of signifi- cant interaction has its impact upon those who were involved in it.” The text states, “Change, to be sure, is more rapid in the less important as- pects of self; but learning goes on contin- uously and even the central aspects of the self-concept may change as a conse- quence of experience over the years.” See, there is hope after all! You can be anything you want to be; you only need to believe in yourself. KfmKuMen Marvin Spracklen: protestor of Counseling and Educational Psychology Department, CASTING BLAME “In the February 1987 issue of Psychology Today, Robert Trotter profiled psychologist Martin E. P, Seligman. Seligman believes the way we explain bad events in our lives can affect future behavior and can have serious implications for mental and physical health. Sometimes, people suffering from depression feel a helpless- ness. Often this feeling is due to ex- posure to uncontrollable bad events, but not always, according to Seligman. Occurrence of bad events doesn't always lead to helplessness and depression because people don’t simply accept these events critically. The answer, or explanta- tion, for these events affects the person's expectation of the future and determines the extentent to which they will be helpless or de- pressed, he said. Researchers have found that the way children explain their per- formance strongly influences whether they give up following a failure or persist to succeed. Seligman said some people fight against stressors while others gee stressors as uncontrollable and react with helplessness and passivi- ty, Those with a more pessimistic view are more likely to have poor health and suffer from depression than those with a more optimistic outlook. There is a cure for what the doctor calls explanatory style, “If you can learn it, you can unlearn it 1 Seligman said. By changing the outlook and Ihe way in which one explains a bad event, through realization of how one perceives bad events, an indi- vidual will be able to alter his or her perspective to an optimistic one. When bad things happen, Seligman said people should look for other causes of the events rather then blaming themselves. This will re- sult in a better mental and physical health of the individual. is

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 bulimic has no extreme weight gain or loss, but the weight stays constant, they will sometimes eat 40,000 calories in one day That amount is what a normal per- son would eat in three weeks. The bulim- ic is trying to lose weight. Anorexia is more serious because it is life threaten- ing. Starvation is the most common way an anoretic will die, Tye said. ullimia is nothing to be J—J ashamed of. Go for help because recovery is possible, but realize that therapy is an ongoing process. ” — Tye Bulimia can be treated with in- house treatment or on an out-patient ba- sis. The in-house treatment is when the bulimic stays in the hospital and has a nurse with them constantly. All waste- baskets and other items that a bulimic attempts to use to throw up in are re- moved from the room. Bars are put on the windows so they can not vomit out the window. The patient sees a nutrition- ist, psychologist and a psychotherapist. BULIMIA WARNING SIGNS; Compulsion with exercise Eating huge amounts of food Withdrawal A team effort is used to help bulimies re- cover. The sooner a bulimic goes for help the easier and faster they are to treat. Tye added, “Bulimia is nothing to be ashamed of. Go for help because re- cover is possible, but realize that therapy is an on-going process.” The success rate is getting better, she added. Many places have support groups which are important in the recov- ery of a bulimic. The family goes through therapy, too, which helps give support to the bulimic. KSC has had a support group in the past that has been success- ful. It usually starts in the fall as a need is seen for it, Tye said. The hope for a bulimic is for her to realize that the success rate is good for recovery. With the proper help and sup- portive family and friends, it can be over- come. JAN OVERCOMES BULIMIA ... Jan (Jan is an anonymous name for the girl this story is about) overcame bulimia, an eating disorder, by realizing that the abuse to her body could kill her. As a senior in high school, Jan be- came obsessed with weight control. Hav- ing others notice her weight loss was her way of getting attention that she didn’t receive at home. Jan’s first semester at KSC was the first time she had been away from home. For her, KSC was a relief; she felt inde- pendent. Her desire for “the perfect body” was fun. She lost weight easily. As a dancer, Jan felt she needed to watch her weight. Jan and a friend decided to have contests to see who could lose five pounds faster, then 10 pounds and so on. She knew she could do it. Then her weight plummeted at 100 pounds. No one suspected Jan to be a bulim- ic because she was so secretive. Another of Jan’s friends was anorec- tic. They confided in each other, sharing new and different ways to binge, purge and starve themselves, Jan’s obsession with weight control and exercise began to take control of her life, as did laxatives. She couldn’t go out after she had just taken 30 laxatives. She isolated herself from her other friends. Depression took over and Jan realized she was abusing her body. She knew if she kept up this ucrazy” way of losing weight, she could kill herself. At this point, death wasn’t in the picture. She went to the Student Health Department of KSC to get help; they re- ferred her to Counseling and Advising, also of KSC. They tried to help her, but sometimes Jan refused help. She was tir- ed of always being sick and weak. One day Jan became overly de- pressed and decided that things were never going to get better and she wanted to die. She cleaned up her apartment, got out a razor blade, and deliberated for 10 hours on whether or not to try suicide. Finally, she slit her wrists. She watched herself bleed, first rapidly, then she started to feel weak. At this time the bleeding stopped. Jan panicked, “Will I die?1’ She called a teacher from the college whom she had confided in. She asked the teacher to take her to the hospital. Jan was in the Good Sa- maritan Hospital for one week. Her par- ents did not know. After her stay in the hospital, she went back to her apartment and tried to resume a regular lifestyle. Her binging and purging began again. As her counselors saw Jan getting worse, they took the problem to higher authorities who then called her parents. The counselors notified them of Jan's condition then suggested they take her home. As Jan was walking home from classes during the week, she saw her par- ents’ vehicle on the KSC grounds. She knew something was wrong because her parents lived 500 miles away. Jan received a telephone call that same day after she had returned home from school, asking her to come back to campus. When she returned, school officials and her parents were waiting. The school officials suggested taking her to the Uni- versity Medical Center in Omaha. Upon returning home her parents thought the notion of taking her to the Medical Center was crazy, so they hired a psychiatrist. Jan saw the doctor quite often, but never really opened up to him. She couldn’t come back to KSC without a doctor’s permission slip. Jan manipulated and lied to the doctor and to herself. All Jan wanted was to return to KSC. The doctor put her on anti-depressant medication. She took them once every day. She began to hate them for two rea- sons: first, they made her gain 45 pounds. Secondly, they were expensive—$100 per month. The doctor told Jan she would have to take these pills the rest of her life. Jan got what she wanted, which was to come back to KSC. The cycle began again — binge, purge, binge, purge. She wanted to lose 45 pounds but Jan knew she didn’t want to abuse her body any- 20