The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 07, 1996, Page 3, Image 3
Wednesday, February 7,1996
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Anorexia nervosa has often been associated with young
women trying to live up to society's expectations and achieve
the ideal supermodel figure.
While eating disorders are more common among women,
about 10 percent of people with anorexia are men.
Mark Shelley, a graduate student in Education and
Residence Hall director of Columbia Hall, developed anorexia
when he was 16 years old. He said his anorexia was about
more than just a fear of fat; he wanted to be well-rounded,
liked, and popular.
"I wanted to look good; I wanted to feel good," Shelley said.
"I'm the kind of person that, when I get to doing something,
I do it all the way."
"I had grown up so chubby. I was a little chubby kid.
Especially in the 1980s, it was the workout decade and thin
was in, even for men," he said.
"I was always a good, skilled athlete in terms of
understanding how to play basketball and baseball. I excelled
at the skills, but I was a step slow. Guys want to be competitive
athletically. I wasn't emphasizing muscle building, but I still
wanted to look good."
Shelley said he weighed between 205 and 210 pounds in
the ninth grade. After a year and a half of working out, his
weight dropped to 155 pounds, and he became obsessed with
keeping the weight off.
"There was one month where I ran over 10 miles a day
for 30 straight days," he said. "Actually, I lost a lot of muscle
because I didn't workout my arms. It was all aerobic. I was
trying to burn calories. I knew how many calories everything
had in it.
"It got pretty bad. I eventual^ got down to where I weighed
124 pounds. I was very thin. Especially in the summer, my
clothes would just hang off of me. It was something I didn't
really realize."
Shelley said he had high self-esteem because he was
successful academically and athletically, but his desire to be
thin was detrimental to his body image.
"At that time, I thought, this was my body, and I could
do with it what I wanted/" he said. "Looking back on it, that
was not a positive body image because I didn't put things in
perspective. I think at that age, I was still thinking I could
change who I am. Now, you're at the point where you accept
,who you are, and you leam to like who you are. You say, Tm
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Matures Editor
not the skinniest person in the world, but I'm strong, I'm shi
healthy, I'm a decent athlete.' There are a lot of things to be an
thankful for." - ~ - ? - pr
Shelley said he received treatment for his anorexia from wa
Dr. John Miller, a family friend and counselor at Trinity I h
Presbyterian Church in Greenville. I r
"We dealt with a lot of practical strategies," Shelley said, wa
"He was very good about trviner to understand me and work
with me. th<
"He realized I wasn't going to start eating 3,000 calories or
a day. He was saying, Tret's tiy and eat 200 more calories a
day, and a week or two later, add 200 more to that. Then you "Y
can see that if you keep working out, you're not going to get loo
fat.' He knew that I had to come to that realization, and he thi
"You don't see yourself the way other people see yo
of what you don't want to look like, and that's how y
300-pound blimp through the whole period because
that is how you look and that* why you can't eat an
you have to be better looking than everybody eise. \
cookie because you're just going to explode."
couldn't do it for me."
Shelley said dealing with anorexia was a positive experience yo
because he developed a better body concept, and he gained a lot
healthier understanding of diet and exercise. sa
"I have a much better concept of what it means to be a be
person," he said. "To have people like me and respect me isn't he
based on what I look like. I have a good sense of what is good w<
to eat. I do workout because I like to feel healthy, and I feel th
better when I do, but I had to go through it [anorexia] to realize he
that.
"I had to put things in perspective. I don't need to run 10 Gi
miles a day," he said. "I need to workout about 30 minutes, pr
four times a week, and that's what keeps my heart going." sy
Nicole, a junior in the College of Humanities, developed
anorexia when she was 15 years old. She said she originally fe<
began dieting to decrease muscle mass she built from playing
sports. ei|
"My brother was constantly getting all of the attention," kr
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e said. "It was something where people finally looked at me th<
d said, There is something different about her.' It was an
obably a year to two years into it before I realized what I fat
is doing. By that point, I was more focused on the fact that els
tad to be thin. Being a size two was too fat for me. By then,
ealized what I was doing, but it seemed like there was no wa
ty to get out of it. I didn't want to." for
Anorexia is characterized by a distorted body image, where
3 individual is often emaciated, but he or she still see him
herself as overweight.
"You don't have the self-image of yourself," Nicole said.
our judgement is really clouded as to what you actually
k like. When you're anorexic, you become such a perfectionist 311
at the littlest thing will set you off. m ?
wo
iu because you have this image in your mind ^
ou see yourself. I probably saw myself as a is f
that is what you are afraid of being. You feel th?
d you have to workout. You have to be thin;
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Nicole, recovering anorexic thi
"You don't see yourself the way other people see you because th
u have this image in your mind of what you don't want to ^
)k like, and that's how you see yourself," she said. "I probably
w myself as a 300-pound blimp through the whole period ^
cause that is what you are afraid of being. You feel that is uq
iw you look and that's why you can't eat and you have to w(
Drkout. You have to be thin; you have to be better looking
an everybody else. You can't take a day off, or you can't ar
ive a cookie because you're just going to explode."
Nicole said she received treatment for her anorexia at u*
jorgetown Hospital in Washington, D.C. Anorexia caused
oblems with her knees and joints, weakened her immune ^
stem and slowed down her metabolism.
Even though she is only a size eight, Nicole said she still to
els fat.
"When you're used to being a size two and you're a size ar
ght, you feel like something is wrong there," she said. "I wl
low I'm pretty much average, but I still worry about it all or
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i time. I still consider myself fat. If I go out with somebody
d they don't like me, I think they don't like me because Fm
. It's easier to blame it on that than to blame it on something
e.
"The main thing that bothers me is that my friends, if they
mt to lose weight before a semiformal, they can stop eating
a week and lose five pounds," she said. 1 just don't have
)ugh fat on my body to lose. This is the body that Fm probably
ing to have forever, and it's frustrating because I know I
Vt change it."
According to Elise Vaughn, a health educator at Health
d Wellness Programs, the portrayal of women in the media
ly explain why eating disorders are more prevalent in
men than in men.
"Models are getting thinner and thinner, yet the average
lerican has actually gained weight," Vaughn said. "There
jven more of a discrepancy between what we are seeing on
s cover of Cosmo and on TV, and how we actually look.
"I think more men are being affected by it now because I
nk they are becoming susceptible to that type of media,"
e said. "I think there's more of that coming into play for
uca in uic luiui ut uiuic puuuuiuuiis aiiu magazines saying
:s is the way to look, instead of having varied body types."
Vaughn said one way to take the emphasis off weight in
e media is to have more "real" people in magazines and on
levision.
"We could have women sell women's clothes, instead of
:-year-old girls trying to sell women's clothes," she said,
(bviously, they don't have the same developed bodies that
)men do, yet women strive to look like this very thin, straight
id flat image. Only one percent of Americans can actually
ach the tall, thin model look, yet that's what everybody ends
) striving for, and that becomes so unhealthy in itself.
"Challenge what your idea of beauty is," she said. "If we
ink about someone we admire or someone we look up to,
)ks rarely have anything to do with it, yet we hold ourselves
a different standard.
"We also need to learn to like ourselves for who we are
id realize that looks are just one minute aspect, not the
lole picture. We shouldn't base how we feel about ourselves
ily on how we look or what the scale has to say that day."
haplains Corner
NDYOUR I / PAIM
.ATIONSHIPS I 1 '1L'"
.M I IP CAMPUS
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your focus! Worship & Dinner Sunday 5:30pm
ist student Union. Body & Soul Dinner/Program: Addiction and
^ Spirituality - Wednesday 5:30pm
EB. 8 at 7 pjn.
mdTAMMI O'NEAL Partnership Among Lutherans k Methodists
jfefega 728 Pickens St 799-73?3
St.Thomas More Catholic Center
Mass Sunday 11am, 6pm; Mon-Thurs. 12:15pm
Confession
Sat 2-3pm or by appt.
Newman Club
Evening Prayer 6:45pm
Meetings: Tues. 7pm
Rev. Michael F. McCafferty, Chaplain