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When eating h People with disorders share personal trials A \ '' ' ! Art Work By Laura S. Day By TODD VENEZIA Staff Writer Next week most of us are going to leave school, go home and celebrate Thanksgiving. It is a holiday when people gather and give thanks for the bounty of food, which they will heartily consume. But for many people, the holiday will be just one more day of giving thanks for being free of food's power over their lives. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they come from all walks of life. They are affected by the chronic binging and purging of bulimia, the starvation of anorexia and from compulsive overeating. But what they all have in common is the suffering that an uncontrollable dependence on food has wrought on their lives. And it has brought them to what, for most, is the last bastion of hope, the twelve steps of Overeaters Anonymous. Members of OA wish to remain anonymous, and therefore all names in this article are not the speakers' real names. "I used to think I had control over my overeating, but I just The BUG'S on its And it's looking to g Don't let the Flu Bug get you down this year. Get your FLU SHOT at the Thomson Student Health Center. Now, for only $5.00. It's a lot less painful than a bite from the BUG! ' I j IMPORTANT MFJDP More and more nursing profe: an important medical discovery vr greatest through Air Force ROTC sons given in recent Air Force nu ; can move up fast..." And, the fa vP|K|^^ advanced than I'd ever imagined \ You're treated like a professional JR Air Force ROTC represents a t enter this environment. It prepar a trained professional in the U. S With Air Force ROTC, you ma; ftwo- to three-year scholarship th< |I\~s BP tuition and most textbooks, labs when you graduate, you're an Aii to make the most of your nursinj mm f DEPTOF AEROSPA* PPK^ 803-777-41: w Leadership Excellen 5 out of control couldn't stop," said Mary, who has been going to OA meetings for four years. "It was iust a total Dre-occuoation with food. I know neonle who could eat half a cookie, but when I'm binging, I can eat a whole box. It affected every area of my life. I even fished food from garbage cans," she said. Mary suffers from compulsive overeating, a disease in which the victim, as an OA publication states, swallows their feelings with their food. Mary said many people fall into these diseases because of a desire to look a certain way, or they turn to food as an emotional crutch. "We believe that compulsive overeating is fatal, like alcohol or drug abuse. A lot of our members suffer from health problems," Mary said. Another woman, Nancy, suffers from bulimia. "I was a classic binger," she said, adding that despite the binges, she could never bring herself to purge through vomiting and laxitives. "I bounced up and down the scale for years, always up and down. I was always thinking of food. I would go to parties, and I was always the date who would stay by the table and keep eating. I was very suicidal. I couldn't kill myself, but I would wish that today was the day that I had a car crash," Nancy said. Susan and Joanne's eating problems led them to drug abuse. "I had everything I ever wanted. I had a good job as a nurse," Susan said. "But I still had to lose the weight" Cocaine allowed her to eat all she wanted and still burn off the weight. "I'd sometimes take some (cocaine) before church functions where I knew there'd be food." Joanne, who turned to laxatives and alcohol, said her problem got worse in college. "A lot of girls were obsessed with weight" she said. Joanne added that it was obvious to everyone that she had a problem, but that nobody ever confronted her. "The way I got out of bed was to fantasize about food because food was mv only reason to live. Nothing could convince me I had a prob lem until I hit rock bottom," she said. "Rock bottom" comes in different forms for everyone. For many, it is the realization that they have no control over their lives. For others, it is more dramatic, such as a close encounter with death. But in the end, rock bottom is what drives all these people to seek help, and many Find help at OA. "I lost my nursing license because I got caught with the cocaine," Susan said. "I decided that either I was going to die or I was going through the 12 steps." Joanne went for help after visiting the dentist. "I went to the dentist, and my teeth were so screwed up he knew that it was a sure sign of bulimia," Joanne said. "He told me about the local OA group." Nancy said food had become her life. "I was ashamed of that part of myself," she said. "It seemed inhuman, it seemed unreal, it seemed gross. Food was a drug for me. It was my god. It was my higher power." Mary said she could not stop her disease without others' help. "In a lot of people and in me there was a desperate desire to stop, but I just couldn't do it alone until I got in the program with all the support that the 12 steps provide," she said. "I needed to get control of my life because I knew that I couldn't control it," she said. See DISORDER page 7 way! it let YOU! I 'TlH'L J i. i > THE I s ; J [ i! 3 j?* The BUG says, Sjbj j[ AD, "Bring proof of your ; flu shot with you, and get I ; f $2.00 off a cholesterol ! tickets a aaa. 4.1. , allti screening test at the Student Health Center. j CAL DISCOVERY UTURE NURSES: [R FORCE ROTC. ssionals have made - opportunities are !. A sampling of reairse interviews: w... you cilities are u... more Plus, .. respect. [ remendous way to es you to be a leader, ybe eHgibie for a "l Ci it pays your full college [J LjlJ I 1?t. y and other fees. And r Force officer, ready z career. i CE STUDIES TONIGH - s l .50 pitchers ^ 1.00 Off w/stuc ice Starts Here all abc regulations enfor< Communicat sex safe, pie; j|Sexually |i I rgSpeaking t \ i By KARL HARDEN and LISA > MUHIN ( Sex Columnists t Keep those questions coming in. ? If you haven't received an answer ( to your question yet, look for it in r upcoming issues. We continue to n get a wide range of interesting questions, and we hope you are ti benefiting from the answers. d Men basically have one "erotic h zone." Women have beaucoup. I Could you name as many of these female erotic zones as pos- a sible so we can all be better sex d partners? fi Men and women have as many p "erogenous" zones as their minds p can think up. Remember, by stimu- v lating an erogenous zone, you are d actually triggering the brain to feel v pleasure. Therefore, erogenous c zones vary greatly from person to ti person. The primary erogenous zones a are similar in both men and wo- e men: neck, earlobes, inner thighs, a buttocks, belly button, genitals (the i< penis and scrotum in men, the ti whole vulva or external genital s area in women). The breasts are also an area of considerable sensi- n tivity for many, but not all, wo- a men. The secondary erogenous i zones can be anywhere on the p body that a person feels pleasur- q able sensations. n As stated earlier, each person ti has erogenous zones unique to b their bodies and has different b things that "turn them on." For in- o stance, many people enjoy having h their earlobes nibbled on, while b many people cannot stand this, c Also, many women get pleasure from stimulation of their clitoris b (where a majority of nerve endings n are located), but direct stimulation n of this organ is painful for some women. 21*11 CAROLINA PROGRAM UNION CULTURAL ARTS COMMITTEE PRESENTS mica'S iBrES(T coM^iyy TKpm : S'ECOO^p < AT KOGER CENTER FOR THE , - ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1? AT 8:00 P.M. 1ISSION - USC STUDENTS W/I.D.: $! PUBLIC: $10.00 RE AVAILABLE AT THE COLISEUM BOX OF HE SCAT LOCATIONS OR BY CALLING 777-! GRAM IS PAID FOR, IN PART, BY THE STUDENT ACTIVITD 71 I k Cag-frm B<xu Chi AND 3UDWEISER present 3X6>TT [Q>(Q)(e and Progressive Rock T IOC WINGS lent I.D. ;ed ion makes asurable The bottom line is similar to the est of the messages you have read n this column. To be a good lover md know what pleases your partter, you need to communicate. This can be done non-verbally, but nany people are not skilled at givng or receiving accurate nonverbal messages. Talking about sex an help you avoid intercourse if hat is your choice, avoid diseases ind unwanted pregnancy if you do :hoose to be sexually active, and nake any physical interactions lore pleasurable for both partners. I'm scared to take birth conrol pills because of the many angers and complications, and I ave sex regularly. What should do? There are many options availble to you besides the pill. A conom used along with spermicidal aam can provide contraceptive rotection equal to birth control ill while also giving you the adantage of sexually transmitted isease protection, which is absent /ith the pill. A diaphragm or the ontraceptive sponge are other opions you may consider.. Certainly you should not use ny method that scares you. Howver, you may be under some false ssumptions about the pill. There > a slight risk of major complicaions such as blood clotting and troke. However, these are most com ion in women over 35 years of ge and in women who smoke. Tie risk of cancer related to the ill has been discussed for years. Tie most current thinking on the latter is that there is not a correlaon between birth control pills and reast cancer. There does seem to e a decreased risk of developing varian cancer, and several studies ave indicated an increased risk etween the pill and cervical ancer. Most of the, side effects you ave probably heard about are the linor side effects that can be anoying but aren't necessarily * See SEX page 7 I ^TOtV I ARTS I 5.?? I FICE AND ? SCAT. =S FEES. , :? < > ?*m , r, 8c Roll