Anorexia and sports

[dixiehack]

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060912/COLUMNISTS18/609120345

It gets a bit more interesting towards the bottom, when it talks about how the issue affects how coaches deal with their players.

Hopkins has discussed nutrition with players who were overweight, always in a way that tried to keep their self-esteem intact. Tinkler noted that eating disorders and self-esteem issues have been hot topics nationally in the NCAA. Hesse, who has a friend who has battled anorexia, said that in 25 years as a college coach she never has received training on dealing with eating disorders, something she believes would be beneficial.

Early in her career, Hesse admitted, she believed players should be weighed weekly. Through educating herself, she has backed off on that. Now, the Bears are weighed maybe once a month, but by a trainer, not a coach. Hesse said she discusses proper nutrition with her players, not weight.

Honestly, it isn't something I had thought much about before.

 

[Idaho]

Check gymnasts, wrestlers and a couple other 'sports' like drill team and cheerleading and you'll find eating disorders are much more common than most are willing to acknowledge.

 

[sportschick]

Add figure skating to the list too. Anything where you gain an edge by being small is going to have an eating disorder issue.

 

[dixiehack]

Those examples I've thought of. Softball? Never really occured to me.

 

[brettwatson]

Since I'm eating as I read this, my personal headline: A good meal spoiled

 

[Vic Mackey]

Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, by Joan Ryan.

Quite possibly the best-reported sports book I've ever read.

 

[Breakyoself]

track as well. I battled starving myself to stay in shape during the season, and in the offseason as well. actually it carried over into college before I just taught myself to eat less instead of not eating at all.

 

[farmerjerome]

I wonder if this is a problem in horseracing too. The jockey's have to be as tiny as possible.

 

[da man]

I wonder if this is a problem in horseracing too. The jockey's have to be as tiny as possible.

Yes it is, very much so. Jocks have been known to purge themselves before weigh-ins.

 

[outofplace]

This reminds me of the wrestlers I went to high school with. Some of those guys would look like they were halfway in the grave during the day.

I think ESPN did an Outside the Lines on this a while back, mostly about female athletes. The main point was about how it wasn't always a lack of eating. Sometimes it was working out too hard and not eating enough to keep up.

 

[Ace]

I wonder if this is a problem in horseracing too. The jockey's have to be as tiny as possible.

Yes it is, very much so. Jocks have been known to purge themselves before weigh-ins.

If by "have been known to" you mean "routinely" you've got it nailed.

 

[HejiraHenry]

If that's the disease, then here's the cure:

 

[Cadet]

I know the NCAA has done a lot to raise awareness of these issues, particularly with coaching education.

Coaches comments about weight have come up in at least one Title IX lawsuit I can think of.

 

[Milo Bryant]

Eating disorders are mental issues. They don't care what sex you are. They don't care what sport you play. They don't care about your ethnic background. And they don't care about your age.

There exists a misguided belief that eating disorders are specific to young white women. Slightly more than 10 million folks in this country have diagnosed eating disorders. Ten percent of those are men. I'm sure the male percentage would be higher if men - and women will love this - were willing to talk about their issues. There have been no definitive eating disorder studies in men for that simple reason.

I've trained folks and have been a fitness consultant through the years. I've had numerous clients with eating disorders. Everybody looking at this site knows a person with an eating disorder. I'm sure every reporter knows an athlete with one, too.

Most of us simply have no clue who they are. But, I can assure you they're more than just Little Girls in Pretty Boxes.

 

[Cadet]

And to add to Milo's excellent points, not every person with an eating disorder is a skin-and-bones size 2. You can't tell just by looking at someone. Hell, it's possible that Daly could be diagnosed.

 

[sportschick]

And to add to Milo's excellent points, not every person with an eating disorder is a skin-and-bones size 2. You can't tell just by looking at someone. Hell, it's possible that Daly could be diagnosed.

Certain types of overeating are considered to be eating disorders. It's not just anorexia and bulimia that are considered mental illnesses.

 

[Trey Beamon]

And to add to Milo's excellent points, not every person with an eating disorder is a skin-and-bones size 2. You can't tell just by looking at someone. Hell, it's possible that Daly could be diagnosed.

Certain types of overeating are considered to be eating disorders. It's not just anorexia and bulimia that are considered mental illnesses.

But when does overeating turn to a disorder? The symptoms -- at least the ones typically tied to "traditional" eating disorders -- wouldn't be as obvious.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I remember a few years ago on this board there was a thread about a lawsuit that a woman who had an eating disorder filed against a high school basketball coach who cut her and told her she needed to lose 10 pounds.
Most people on this board pooh-poohed the suit as frivolous. I still maintain that the coach would have been better off telling her she needed to pass a fitness test of some sort, running a mile in a certain amount of time, doing a certain number of suicides within a certain period of time, something like that, giving her that sort of thing as a goal, not weight loss.
Yes, this world would be a better place if more people would just suck it up and get on with their lives rather than trying to sue anyone whom they think messed up their life. The thing is, the coach could have and should have handled it differently.

 

[Football_Bat]

I suppose there's a big difference between not eating because of an emotional reason and not eating in order to "make weight." Not that one is healthier than the other. Just that there are internal issues with one and external issues with the other. Seems to me the former is the more serious.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Juliet Macur wrote something on this topic when she was at the DMN. I remember it was in the BASW a few years back. It was just ****ing amazing, one of those stories that you read, it stays with you for awhile and you read it again...