FORMER MISS ARIZONA ON LIFE WITH AN EATING DISORDER

One out of five college women have an eating disorder, said an advocate for eating disorder education and prevention Wednesday night in the University Ballroom. But friends can play a role in reducing that statistic.

Stacey Kole, former Miss Arizona and sixth-place finisher in the Miss USA pageant in 1998, came to the University of Montana to talk about women and eating disorders, highlighting her experience with anorexia and how she overcame it.

As a 16-year-old junior in high school, Kole was a perfectionist. She was on the honor roll, represented Arizona in teen pageants, performed several hours of community service a week and took college courses in the afternoons, so that she could graduate from college in three years instead of four. This perfectionist attitude drove her to anorexia, where she ate only diet shakes for breakfast and half an apple and half a sandwich for lunch.

Now Kole is an advocate for eating disorder education and prevention and gives talks all over the United States.

Kole said her talks are directed toward women, because 90 percent of all people with eating disorders are women.

According to reports done by the National Institute of Mental Health, the three main eating disorders are also bulimia, anorexia and binge eating. Cheryl Vandenburg, clinical psychologist at Curry Health Center, attended the speech and said those three eating disorders are the most common at the University of Montana. Vandenburg said some students suffer from eating disorders because they are at vulnerable places in their lives.

?They?re on their own for the first time, and they have the emotional vulnerability from the past that they bring with them,? Vandenburg said. ?They have to negotiate a relationship with food for the first time.?

Kole only talked about two of the most-common disorders ? bulimia and anorexia ? because those are the areas in which she is most knowledgeable.

?A doctor once told me that 10 times as many women have bulimia as do anorexia,? Kole said.

Bulimia is a disorder that causes people to eat a very large meal and throw it up afterwards, according to reports by NIMH.

Kole said there are five ways a person will purge themself: Vomiting is the most common, then laxative abuse, third is diuretic abuse in which you take a pill designed to make you lose water weight, fourth is excessive compulsive eating, and fifth is fasting.

Signs of someone who purges can be raw knuckles, teeth erosion from stomach acid and frequent bathroom trips after they?re done eating, Kole said.

The next most-common eating disorder is anorexia.

?Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder,? Kole said. And Kole?s statistic was backed up by Vandenburg.

?(Anorexia) lies above depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia,? Vandenburg said.

People suffering from anorexia don?t eat very much, and when they do they eat small meals, according to NIMH. They may also weigh their food and exercise compulsively.

Relating back to her own experience, Kole said having a safe friend could have helped her to recover faster.

?Eating-disorder people need people they can trust,? Kole said. ?Someone they can go to for help.?

The third most common disorder is binge-eating. Binge-eaters often eat large meals alone and very fast, whether they?re hungry or not, according to NIMH. And unlike the other two disorders, men and women are equally prone to having a binge-eating disorder.

Two things helped Kole recover from anorexia: seeing a counselor when she was 16 and seeking God?s help.

In the counselor?s office, Kole started thinking back to her fourth-grade teacher, Miss Divie, who told her students that her passion and love for life came from a Bible verse that she had made her life?s motto.

?I have come that you might have life and have it to the full,? was the verse, Kole said.

Kole said there?s more to eating disorders than their clinical definitions.

?Tonight we?ve talked about eating disorders, and they?re not so much about having empty stomachs as they are so often about having empty hearts.?

Kole said she was trying to have a full life but was refusing to have any meaningful contact with God.

?It was like I said, ?God, I can do this on my own. I don?t need you, I can run my own life,?? Kole said. ?But the results were hurt, pain and loneliness.?

But then, Kole said, she learned that God loved her so much that he sent Jesus Christ to be her healer ? so that she could live the full life she was always intended to live, Kole said.

Through her relationship with God, Kole has found a reason to live.

?My soul found its worth,? Kole said. ?That became a reason for the first time to live life to the full.?

[Edited on 25/1/05 by nido]