The VernonMorningStar.com published an article about a creative initiative an organization did at a high school in order to raise awareness about eating disorders and body image. They covered all the mirrors in ths school with paper for a day and wrote uplifting and thought-provoking phrases on them. This sounds like a positive way to draw attention to these important issues. You might want to try this at your local school or maybe at your own house.

Here is an excerpt from the article:  "The Mirrorless Monday event was a way to help schools participate in raising awareness of eating disorders, for youth to take a break from worrying about how they look, accepting themselves and others, giving distorted body image a break, and celebrating their own individuality."

Click here to open another window to the article.

There is a new article published on Psychiatric News regarding a study that was conducted in Sweden on the death rate for those with anorexia compared to the general population. Eating disorders have serious, long-term health complications, and this article supports the recommendations of eating disorder professionals to get treatment rather than allow the condition to continue. Here is an excerpt:

"Altogether, anorexia patients were six times more likely to have died during the 30-year follow-up period than was the general population.

Some good news also emerged from the study, the researchers noted, in that the death rates for patients first admitted to the hospital from 1987 to 2003 for anorexia were substantially lower than those for patients first admitted to the hospital for anorexia from 1973 to 1979. The researchers believe that this downward trend reflects improved psychiatric and other medical care for anorexia patients in recent years."

Click here to open a window to the full article.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 22-28. The focus of this week is to draw attention to the issues dealt with by men and women with anorexia, bulimia and related eating disorders. There is an article on Medical News Today that covers NEDA Week goals and the more specific 2009 focus issues.

Here is an excerpt from the article:  "As part of 2009 NEDAwareness Week, NEDA has launched the STAR Program, (States for Treatment Access and Research), a multi-tiered effort to unite individuals, family members, treatment providers and advocacy groups. Being introduced in the legislature of 30 state capitals in February/March, the STAR program promotes a charter developed by the Academy for Eating Disorders that addresses the rights of eating disorder patients."

Click Here to open another window and view the article.

There is an article on Your Family Matters website about the development of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia in the teen population. Dr Kanner gives an overview and some tips on how to deal with the issue.

Here is an excerpt from the article: "But exactly how do these eating disorders develop? Despite some attempts to portray some sort of classic syndrome, the truth is that the eating disorders are no different than any other psychiatric symptom. In other words, there could be a number of different underlying conflicts which give rise to the development of this type of syndrome just like when an adolescent develops a depression. However, when an adolescent develops an eating disorder, the condition can become very serious and frequently can cause physical health as well as psychological problems."

Click here to open a window to the article.