MONTVALE—The PHHS PFA Parent Academy presents “Body Image Issues: Helping People to Love Themselves, Inside and Out” on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at Pascack Hills High School Media Center, 225 W. Grand Ave.
The invitation reads, “Establishing healthy attitudes and habits in today’s society can be challenging, especially with the influence of social media.”
Join licensed clinical social worker Nancy Graham and registered dietitian Randy Mintz from The Renfrew Center of Northern New Jersey in Paramus, who will talk about body image and eating disorders including nutrition strategies and healing a person’s relationship with food.”
Topics will include myths surrounding eating disorders, the influence of the media, signs and symptoms, how to get help, what to expect in treatment, preventive tips for parents, and how you can be supportive to your child, loved one or yourself.
Eating disorders involve distorted feelings and behaviors related to food and eating. They can have serious and often fatal consequences.
According to Jennifer Charnow, founder and organizer of PHHS PFA Parent Academy — an educational program for parents to address topics of importance related primarily to students’ social, educational, emotional or physical health — “It’s going to be an intimate evening. I hope that there’s a good turnout. It’s an extremely important topic.”
She told Pascack Press on Jan. 31, “All the time I’ve been in school systems I’ve never seen a program done on eating disorders and it’s really such an important topic that is really overlooked and hits a lot of families — kids and parents.”
The mother of two also is Woodcliff Lake’s Stigma-Free representative. She started the PFA Parent Academy a handful of years ago in Woodcliff Lake.
“We focus a lot on opioid addiction as being the deadliest of mental health condition but surprisingly, eating disorders comes in at the second highest toll, and in New Jersey alone more than 375,000 residents are affected by eating disorders,” Charnow said.
She added, “People don’t like to talk about it because some people believe it’s not real, some people believe it’s something to feel ashamed about.”
She said, “My whole thing, everything I do: it’s [about] stigma-free. We all have things that we deal with, and it’s important to share them and get help and support each other.”
Charnow said the event is “for everybody; it’s not just for kids, though kids are obviously welcome.”
She spoke to the rise of social media as fueling the rise of body image issues. “It plays a huge factor. It’s unrealistic, and kids are constantly comparing themselves to their friends, or people they see on TV, or TikTok-ers or Instagrammers.”
She said that beyond Graham and Mintz presenting, organizers nearly had the benefit of a youth presenter from the school community. “It’s a very private thing and they just weren’t ready.”
Other organizers of the event are Hills-Valley Coalition (led by Charnow and Jennifer Zimmerman), “an alliance of dedicated community members, who work to promote a stigma-free and substance-free environment for the families of Hillsdale, River Vale, Montvale, and Woodcliff Lake”; and
The Renfrew Center, whose “evidence-based treatment model emphasizes respect for the unique psychology of women, the importance of a collaborative therapeutic relationship and the belief that every patient needs to actively participate in their own growth and recovery.”
The facts are sobering. According to the Eating Disorders Coalition for research, policy, and action:
- At least 28.8 million Americans will suffer from an eating disorder in their lifetime.
- Eating disorders affect people of all ages, genders, races, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups.
- Eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate of any mental illness. “Someone dies as a direct result of an eating disorder every 52 minutes.”
- There is relatively little U.S. federal funding for research on eating disorders.
There are four main eating disorders.
- Anorexia nervosa: Anorexia involves serious restriction of food and/or calorie intake and a distorted vision of self as overweight even if underweight.
- Bulimia nervosa: Bulimia generally follows a binge–purge pattern of eating where an individual eats a large amount of food in a binge and then compensates for this with laxatives or diuretics, forced vomiting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these actions.
- Binge eating disorder: Unlike with bulimia, binge eating disorder is not followed by purging behaviors and involves a loss of control over eating.
- Avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID): ARFID involves severely restricting the amount or type of food eaten, but unlike with anorexia, this is not due to a distorted body image.
The organization says that although eating disorders “have commonly been considered to mainly impact women and those in Western countries, studies show that men also develop eating disorders, and there is a high prevalence of eating disorders in Asia and developing Middle Eastern countries.”
Looking ahead, The Renfrew Center is marking Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 27 – March 5, with a campaign, “We’ve Got the Power,” which “aims to acknowledge the effects of societal pressures to look or live a certain way. We are constantly overwhelmed with messages of the ‘right’ way to eat, how to best dress to hide our ‘problem areas’ and the next diet trend seems to always be right around the corner. The fact of the matter is, we live in a culture that makes it exceptionally difficult to find the freedom to simply be ourselves.”
The center says its campaign is “a call to action to wholeheartedly reject the messages which tell you you are not enough and to embrace yourself for all your eccentricities and imperfections.”
It says, “Find power in your vulnerability. Through a variety of interactive and engaging workshops and resources, Renfrew encourages you to give yourself permission to live fully in your body and celebrate everything that makes you you.”
Space for “Body Image Issues: Helping People to Love Themselves, Inside and Out” is limited. RSVP at https://forms.gle/vd3uYBSIhzfmlc5Z7.