Gardner-Webb Umversitv
View of Homecoming
Th^ilOm
page 6-7
Thursday, October 19, 2000
The Official Campus Newspaper
Volume 4 No. 2
EATING DISORDERS: The silent killers
Nathan Rouse
Special to the Pilot
Day in and day out, stu
dents traverse the Gardner-
Webb campus, seeing the
smihng faces of fellow stu
dents, never suspecting the
possibility of a darkness and
depression that can easily
hide behind a well-placed
smile.
This depression can
manifest itself as an eating
disorder, a disease that
affects over five million
American men and women.
This figure may not seem
terribly high until the real
ization hits that thousands of
these people will die from
the physical problems
caused by these conditions.
Gardner-Webb students
are no exception.
If anything, college is the
perfect time for these deadly
diseases to take hold in the
lives of their victims, typi
cally females.
Eating disorders are
often used as a dysfunctional
means of dealing with psy
chological stresses and prob
lems.
Junior Brooke Clark,
who at one point lost 25
pounds in two months, has
used her own personal expe
riences with eating disorders
to help others with similar
problems. Clark attributes
her past condition to a desire
for control.
“It’s not just a physical
problem, but a mental on»„.
If nothing's going right, I
can at least control what I
put in my body,” said Clark.
For Clark, the decision
was a willful progression
that eventually defeated her
initial desire for control
when the disease began to
take over and consume her.
When asked about
male’s susceptibility to the
disorders, Clark belies the
common idea of females
being the only victims.
“Men don’t typically fall
into the big categories, but
any abuse of your body by
denying it food is an eating
disorder.,” said Clark. “A
way guys do it is by ignoring
their bodies need for healthy
food in order to try to buff
up.”
Senior Summer Jeffcoat
agreed, “Yes, while it is pri
marily a problem for
females, men are certainly
not exempt.”
Senior Darin Deaton,
when asked if men are
plagued by eating disorders,
said, “Why shouldn’t it
affect men? The disease is in
no way gender specific. It
may not be the same way
girls face it, but it’s still
there.
“You have these guys
who starve themselves and
work out and take vitamins
in order to maintain a
healthy physique while more
often than not they end up
hurting themselves in the
process,” continued Deaton.
Clinically there are three
types of diagnosed eating
disorders. One is anorexia
nervosa, a disorder in which
preoccupation with dieting
and thinness leads to exces
sive weight loss.
In bulimia nervosa fre
quent episodes of binge eat
ing are usually followed by
purging, or ridding the body
of food. Binge eating disor
der, which involves uncon
trolled eating that is usually
SEE Silent Page 2
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m
Pilot photo by Jessica Webb
Gunlner-Wchh jiuiior. Bnx'ke Clark, who at one point lost 25 pounds in two months, has trouble today look
ing at herself in the mirror