This “new” disorder is meant to address people who lie about their food intake. Whether they front a healthy diet to friends and secretly deprive themselves in private or pose extreme diets to friends and then proceed to scarf down some oreos when no is around.

Liarexic is just another way of addressing one of the multitudes of eating issues women tend to suffer from. I think lying about food is a very common occurrence among women in college. When girls feel pressure to lose weight but can’t stick to their crazy detox diets, hiding calories can seem easier. I’m just not convinced their phenomena needs it’s own classification.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think this is an issue. I’m just over the phrases. When we start lumping all these terms together—tanorexic, drunkorexic and mommyrexic (had no idea this one even existed until today) it just gets a to be a bit much. Issues, like girls being incredibly shady about their eating habits get lumped together with girls who hit up the tanning beds too much. Dare I say the terms have even gotten a bit cutesy? And anorexia is not something that should be taken lightly.

Also, it seems people are way too quick to call something a disorder or to claim they have discovered a new issue. Girls lie about their food intake sometimes, this isn’t new. It’s sad and true, but we don’t need another fancy-shmancy word to highlight the issue, and at the same time downplay the importance of all of them with this over used cliche.

It is for this reason that the biggest conflict of the latest episode (a tribute to the iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show) wasn’t Will and Emma’s will they/won’t they relationship, or Sue’s attempt at backstabbing, or even Finn Hudson’s principal visit: it was something far more simple and undeniably universal: one of the character’s body image issues.

Cory Monteith (YUM) expressed concern when he heard that one of the male cast members would be donning an extremely revealing costume that the episode demanded; he put himself on a crash diet immediately, without even knowing if he would be the man to step into these….um, panties.   If I know Ryan Murphy at all (and I think I do; we’ve chatted about our shared love of boundary-pushing show tunes many times in my imagination), I believe that he wrote this storyline into the script because he knew it would speak to today’s youth.  Because issues with body image and the inevitable slew of problems that come with isn’t just an issue that affects women.

But I have to wonder: why is it considered cute when a male star like Cory Monteith changes his dietary habits and attempts to drop a few sizes?  When his tiny costar Lea Michele lost weight, critics were quick to point fingers.   What people need to realize is that men are susceptible to the unhealthy consequences of body image issues too.

A male friend of mine spoke about the pressure he feels from the media – which is basically to say, every time Matthew McConaughey sheds his shirt (standard), he feels the same sort of envy that almost girl experiences during Victoria’s Secret commercials.   When I was younger, I had another friend who suffered from a male body issues, though to a more dangerous extent.  After he spoke up in class about how he was recovering from a serious case of anorexia, it came as no surprise to me when people started referring to him as “manorexic.”  At the time it made me angry that people chose to poke fun at such a serious issue, but I realize now that they didn’t do it to be cruel – they simply didn’t take a male with body image issues seriously.

The ever-present double standard is clearly in effect here – though in a few ways, it seems the women have drawn the longer end of the straw.   Female body image issues have gotten a lot of attention, and because of this, people seem to be more sensitive to the issue.   We’re slowly moving into a time in which multiple female shapes are celebrated (I really can’t imagine that Kim Kardashian would have been considered so sexy fifteen years ago), but for guys it seems that only one look is acceptable: tall, muscular, yet somehow lean.  In short, if you’re not chiseled to Ken doll perfection, your body isn’t considered great.

Body image issues have certainly been tackled on television before, but leave it to Glee to put a fresh, undeniably relevant spin on it.  Last season they addressed the issue in a way that was so obvious, it almost seemed forced and lacked the impact that the second installment carried.  Mercedes’ discomfort (and eventual reconciliation) with her own body was an inevitable story line for a show of this nature.  But I think it was incredibly brave of Ryan Murphy to put a good-looking guy in this position.  When people see someone like the fictional Finn Hudson, a cute and popular guy with a pretty girlfriend (who comes covered head-to-toe in her own insecurities, but that’s an issue for another time), a person who actually does appear to be very much in shape, they realize that everyone has those days – even people who others view as incredibly attractive.

Not that Amber Riley who plays Mercedes isn’t beautiful, but the whole “curvy girl who is uncomfortable with her weight” is well-worn territory.   Putting a person who resembles someone who most guys have wanted to be at some point or another in a position of vulnerability, on the other hand, sends a really powerful message.

I applaud the writers of Glee for picking up on the fact that male body image is a pervasive, complex, and important issue, and for doing it such an authentic and original way.  If more of these initiatives are taken, it’ll only be a matter of time before the “manorexia” jokes are seen for what they really are: unfair attacks at a serious problem.

In the U.S. one or two out of every 100 students will have an eating disorder. The most common of these are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Sadly, we usually aren’t aware that someone we know has one until it is too late. My friend Tina (not her real name, obviously) suffered alternatively from anorexia and bulimia for years and she agreed to share her story.

Her anorexia began when she was around eleven years old, and continued on and off. When she began to suffer from bulimia, she was fifteen. She used to throw up after every meal, no matter how small it was. On average, that was about three to five times a day. All of this was so that she would reach her ideal weight of eighty to eighty-five pounds, which is the weight she was in 7^th and 8^th grade.

Tina said that before eating a meal, regardless of how hungry she was, she would feel guilty for eating. She would tell herself to go ahead and consume the food, as long as she threw it up afterward. While eating she would feel “disgusted and bloated,” and regret eating at all as soon as she finished. Because of this Tina says, “sometimes I had to force myself to eat.”

“It drove me crazy because I didn’t want to, but I had to or I knew I would go to the hospital. Or if my family was making me, to please them.”

While eating out, so as not to feel as guilty about eating, she would usually order an appetizer or a salad.

“I was always thinking about how fat, stupid, or worthless I was. How imperfect I was. I would look at girls smaller than me and think of ways to get like them. It was a huge mind game for control. I wanted control of my body and how I looked. I hated it but I loved it all the same.”

When asked if she could do things normally, such as play sports and be active with her eating disorder, she admitted that she could, but not for extended periods of time. “I was extremely weak, and often too fatigued to do much of anything.”

Because of constant mood swings and the amount of weight she was losing, people began to take notice of her eating disorder. Still, their reactions were surprising.

“Some people pitied me, and others told me to grow up. Only a handful of people have actually tried to be there for me.”

Eventually, Tina was hospitalized and was given medicine to help her reach a healthy weight. She reached 112 pounds and was released. For all intents and purposes, Tina is better, but it’s a never-ending cycle. “I’m honestly unaware of what I’m doing if I revert back to old habits, which keeps me from seeking the help I need until I’m already considered anorexic or bulimic again.”

But she is on the road to recovery. Tina consciously reminds herself daily of the damage she is doing to her body (her hair would come out in handfuls and her skin was white and pasty), and is attending counseling sessions.

Tina believes that her biggest challenge she faces now would be overcoming her eating disorders completely.

“It is hard to really get past it and stay past it. I slip up quite a bit. Currently, I weigh 98 pounds. Being just 17 and 5 feet 4 inches, I know that is not a healthy weight.”

Tina offers this advice for girls struggling with eating issues:

“My advice would be to get help. No matter how much you don’t want to or how much control you think you have over it, you don’t. I thought I could control it, but I couldn’t. I ended up with hypoglycemia because of it. So please, if you have an eating disorder, don’t be stubborn, get help. To the girls with friends who are struggling, be there for them. Offer to help or be there when they ask for help from their parents, guidance counselors or whoever they feel comfortable asking. Be careful to be gentle with them though and not get frustrated because they don’t listen right away or seem reluctant. Remember, when you have an eating disorder, your mind becomes fragile and you end up hurting everyone around you just as much as you are hurting your own body. There is no such thing as perfection. It is a figment of our imagination. Something far too complex for anyone to be, therefore, unreal.”

But about what exactly? Eating disorders. Yep, it’s time to talk about them, girls. That’s the slogan for the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA’s) National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW), February 21-27th 2010.

The goal of NEDAW is “to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment,” says the NEDAW website. “Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses — not choices — and it’s important to recognize the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape the disorder.”

And that’s what we’ll be doing on CollegeCandy all week long. We’ll be covering the basics: what eating disorders look like, how to help a friend in need, disordered eating and losing weight the healthy way. We want to bring this difficult and serious issue to the forefront and help our friends in need.

So what do eating disorders look like? Well, just like people, they come in all shapes and sizes. Signs of eating disorders are far more varied than most people think. Sure, looking emaciated might be a tip-off that something is wrong, but there are so many more things to be aware of.

Each eating disorder, (there are four main types – Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and Eating Disorders not otherwise specified), has it’s own set of signs and symptoms. Of course, many of these overlap.

If you find you or a friend exhibiting any of the behaviors below, please seek help from someone you trust. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, and “a study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover.” Scary stuff.

So what should you look for?

Anorexia Nervosa: Self-starvation and refusal to eat or maintain a weight at a healthy or normal level for one’s age, size, height and activity level. Intense fear of being fat in spite of excessive weight loss.

Symptoms:

Dramatic weight loss; preoccupation with dieting, weight, food, calories, and fat grams that interferes with one’s life; refusal to eat certain foods; denies feeling hungry; complaints of constipation, abdominal pain, cold intolerance, lethargy,and excess energy; avoids mealtimes or social functions involving food; resistance to maintaining normal body weight, comments about feeling “fat”; excessive and intense exercise regimen; loss of menstrual period; growth of thin body hair.

Bulimia Nervosa: Cycles of binge eating and purging (compensating for eating large amounts of food in a short period of time by vomiting, laxative abuse or over-exercising).

Symptoms:

Evidence of binge eating; evidence of purging; feels uncomfortable eating around others; develops food rituals; hides or hoardes food; drinks excessive amounts of water; uses mouthwash, mints or gum excessively; unusual swelling of cheeks or jaw; calluses on back of fingers or hands from inducing vomiting; extreme exercise habits; extreme concern with body weight or shape; looks bloated from fluid retention; discolored teeth. May be at a normal weight or overweight.

Binge Eating Disorder: Characterized by recurrent binge eating without regular use of compensatory measures to counter binge eating while feeling out of control, ashamed or disgusted over behavior.

Symptoms:

Excessive binge eating; food rituals; steals or hoards food; makes lifestyle changes to allow for binges; skips meals or takes small portions at mealtimes; periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling comfortably full; engages in sporadic fasting or repetitive dieting. Body weight may be average, low, above average or obese.

Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS): Includes some combination of the signs and symptoms of the above disorders, but not all of the criteria necessary to meet a specific diagnosis. Like all eating disorders, EDNOS are physically dangerous and emotionality destructive.

Symptoms: Any other above signs and symptoms.

[Tomorrow we'll share the best ways to approach a friend you think might be suffering from one of the above disorders. Come back and find out, from someone who's been through it before, the right and wrong way to help a friend.]

My personal fight with an eating disorder started innocently as a goal to get fit and healthy as a freshman in college. I was never overweight, but I suddenly became very self-conscious in a dorm room filled with girls who were prettier and thinner. I began joining in on the nightly runs and workouts with the other girls – not only were helping me lose weight and get in shape, but I was making new friends as well. It was very difficult for me to be in a new place with no one I knew. I had grown up in a small Christian high school where everyone knew my name, where it was easy to be popular and liked, and where I identified my worth with the achievements, awards, and titles that I held. Now, as I began to compare myself with my new friends, I suddenly felt insecure and as if I had lost my worth. With the praise that I began to receive about how great I looked, I started to believe that being skinny would be what could make me happy and feel self-worth.

In an effort to see more change faster, I began to cut carbohydrates and meat out of my diet, soon only eating fruits and vegetables at each meal.  My sense of accomplishment for having lost weight with just cutting back on “junk food” and exercising every day fueled a deeper desire for more control over life.  During this time, my family was going through some very difficult issues and I had always had a hard time voicing my anger, hurt, and frustration. Restricting my body of food and pushing myself physically through exercise allowed me to “voice” my negative feelings. Rather than sharing how I felt about my insecurity and pain, I turned inward and began to find solace in controlling my own body.

During my second semester I had let my eating take over my life to the point where I had lost 30 pounds in two months. My RA had finally convinced me to go to the doctor with her and when I was officially diagnosed as an anorexic, the dean of women immediately sent home for treatment. Rather than accepting the help of doctors and therapists, I decided to cling to my eating disorder even more tightly. I had fallen beyond the point where I was choosing not to eat, and was now in a place where I was so overwhelmed with the fear of letting go and losing control that I couldn’t make myself eat.

Over the next two years I was sent to different hospitals and treatment centers as my weight continued to spiral down. I had lost sight of the goals and dreams I had for my life and the only goal that mattered was seeing the numbers on the scale decrease. It felt the a war was going on inside of me – one side of me wanted to never let go of anorexia, I had found comfort and control in the disease, yet the other side of me was screaming for help to get my life back, to feel like myself again and to be able to stop thinking about my weight.

It wasn’t long before I hit rock bottom. At 68 pounds I was labeled a chronic anorexic and my doctor told my parents to prepare for my funeral. I was once again admitted to a long inpatient stay and tube-feed in order to regain weight. The experience was unpleasant to say the least and after gaining enough weight to stabilize, I left against medical advice, swearing that I would never be back.  While in the hospital I caught a glimpse of my life passing before my eyes, of the time I couldn’t get back, of the friends I had lost, of the years I spent in hospitals and I finally realized that I had to take action if I wanted to stop anorexia from taking my life. Right then I promised myself that I would get better. I took responsibility for my recovery and began to see the future that I could have once I decided to live healthy and accept the help of others.

As I began to nourish my body physically, I began to feel better emotionally and mentally. With daily baby steps of accepting myself and setting goals  -physically, mentally and emotionally, I was able to get back on track. Most importantly, I knew that God had a greater plan for my life, that I was not meant to live trapped in an eating disorder.

I did not recover overnight. It took roughly two years for me to begin experiencing life again without turning toward anorexia’s habits. With the help of counselors, family, and friends, I was able to voice my disappointment and hurt in order to move on from past pain. A big part of my recovery was finding something that I loved to do that would help others. It is when you help someone who is in need that you realize just how grateful you are for life.  I still had difficult days where I wanted to turn back to anorexia and feel the self-satisfaction of not eating, but I continued to press on toward my new goals of finishing college and starting my career.

Now, after having attained my bachelors degree and being on a career path that I could have only dreamed about, I am overwhelmed with peace and joy. Life is not about what size jeans you wear or how much skinner you are than the girl next to you. Nor is life about hiding the pain and hurt you feel to look perfect on the outside. Life is about giving and receiving love, cherishing the time you have with friends and family, and becoming the person you dream of being. If you have ever struggled with an eating disorder, press on, for life awaits you. If you know someone with an eating disorder, continue to support and pray that they will see their true worth. Together, we can overcome the deadly trap of eating disorders.

[If you have questions for Kristie or need to talk to someone, email her]

Creepy Adult Excitement Over High School Musical 3.

All the reviews are positive. Everyone’s raving over it. And grown ass women are holding in depth discussions about Zac Efron’s facial hair (or lack thereof). I understand that the kids who fell in love with HSM 3 years ago have gotten older and that the movie is “growing up” to cater to them, but that’s the point: Disney made it for seniors in high school—not the hosts of the Daily 10, not for my mom (who has already purchased tickets in advance) and not for me (although I do love me some Corbin Bleu).

The bottom line is that this movie is about high school, so high schooler’s should be the ones counting the days until its release. When Disney can find a way to wholesomely portray coed life while incorporating schnazzy dance numbers with synchronized keg stands, I’ll be the first one at the box office.

Yet Another Reason to Hate Flying.

As if there weren’t enough things to worry about when hurtling through the air in a giant chunk of metal with no easy access to (or knowledge of how to operate) a parachute, I now need to prepare for incidents that could occur pre-takeoff. In Chicago, a plane collided with a pickup truck on the runway. I think it’s safe to say that the truck driver is slightly more responsible in this situation. I mean, A) how did you miss the enormous freaking AIRPLANE blocking your path, and b) WHY were you in a pickup truck on the tarmac? This just makes no sense to me, but as bad as a backseat driver (and passenger) as I was before, you better believe I’ll be second guessing a smooth takeoff the next time I board a plane.

The economy f*cking every. single. industry.

So far I’ve come through this recession/crisis/Armageddon unscathed. Luckily, I really haven’t been hurting in any obvious ways (not that I had much money to lose, or many expenses that would take a toll on my poor college lifestyle). But I finally am starting to worry: TV has been affected. I mean, the industry is pretty resilient; they even survived running shows without anyone to write them, but the news has been announced that NBC is trimming the fat--$5 million worth of fat. Jeff Zucker, CEO, is looking for ways to cut staff and other expenses. All I know is that I need me some quality NBC sitcom to lift me out of my monetary funk…and if anything happens to The Office all hell will break loose.

John Mccain’s Apparent State of Delusion.

So, despite the fact that Obama is OWNING Mccain in the race for the white house thus far, Johnnie still thinks that “things are headed [his] way.” Really? What things might you be speaking of? A landslide loss in an historical election? A sad realization that you were simply a filler candidate for the Republican party? A HUGE increase in your taxes once your opponent is elected? Because, yeah, I can see those things headed in your direction. Maybe that SNL skit revolving around your imaginary BFF, Joe the Plumber, is spot on regarding your mental stability…

Haters.

No one likes a hata. Especially when said hata is hatin’ on someone for a ridic reason….which is most of the time. Specifically this week, though, those hatin’ on women for their body type or size is particularly whack. When the tabs aren’t blowing up bikini pics of pregnant women to circle their cellulite, they’re hurling accusations of eating disorders at stars they deem too thin. Seriously? It’s kind of common decency not to criticize real women who are “too fat,” but at what point did it become okay to label anyone under 115 lbs as anorexic? Celebs are living, breathing human beings. Yes, it is part of their job to stay in good shape (and they get paid enough to afford those pricey trainers and nutritionists), but it’s social responsibility to discontinue the degrading and emotionally scarring descriptions that are printed about famous women. Set a positive example for the way that real women are portrayed and talked about.

Whew! Venting makes me feel much better. Now it’s your turn… 

Watch the Couric/Palin interview here. One word: Oy.

Suri Cruise has no friends.

Parents just don’t understand….

Drew Barrymore eats Ed Westwick’s face.

McCain cancels on Letterman…tsk tsk tsk.

Justin Long can’t seem to hold onto a lady.

Apparently the 90210 girls DO eat!

Britney Spears channels Posh Spice.

Kirk Cameron is making a comeback.

Threesome for LiLo and Sam…and Mickey Mouse.

Looks like Hef’s Viagra ran out… he loses another one.

Is Tina Fey a bad role model for women?

Michael Lohan’s thoughts on Samantha Ronson and her toilet paper preferences.

Perez Hilton writes a song. If you value your sanity, do not click here.