Providing a variety of films, discussions and workshops aimed at educating students about different eating disorders, the College will participate in the first National Eating Disorders Awareness Week next week.
The theme for the week's events is "Body Image: Keeping Perspective," said Heidi Fishman, a staff psychologist at Dick's House.
Eating Disorders Awareness Week is an effort to educate college students about what to look for in themselves and in their friends in terms of eating problems, she said.
On Monday night ,there will be a screening of a film titled "Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness."
Fishman said the film shows the unreal ideal of the body depicted in advertising and how it affects the way people feel about themselves.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion. Panelists will include Fishman, Coordinator of the Nutrition Education Program Marcia Herrin, members of Students Against the Abuse of Food and Exercise and students who have recovered from eating disorders, Herrin said.
Body image workshops will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fishman said the workshops will include audience participation to help people discover the "messages they are saying about their own bodies."
Fishman said the workshops will help students discover the "things people say to themselves when they look in the mirror" and help them not say these things "over and over every day."
On Thursday, the College will join more than 600 other colleges in the country in conducting eating disorder screening sessions for students.
The screening includes a video and slide presentation, a lecture, a questionnaire and a private, anonymous one-on-one interview assessment with a trained clinician.
