Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Basic Knowledge on Types of Eating Disorders

Hey guys! I want to use this space not only to update you on my year, but also do as much education possible about eating disorders. So, we're going to start with the basics this week- definitions!

So, with so many grey areas pertaining to body type and symptoms, how do you know if someone is truly in the throes of an eating disorder?

Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by emaciation, a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight, a distortion of body image and intense fear of gaining weight, a lack of menstruation among girls and women, and extremely disturbed eating behavior. Some people with anorexia lose weight by dieting and exercising excessively; others lose weight by self-induced vomiting, or misusing laxatives, diuretics or enemas.

Many people with anorexia see themselves as overweight, even when they are starved or are clearly malnourished. Eating, food and weight control become obsessions. A person with anorexia typically weighs herself or himself repeatedly, portions food carefully, and eats only very small quantities of only certain foods. Some who have anorexia recover with treatment after only one episode. Others get well but have relapses. Still others have a more chronic form of anorexia, in which their health deteriorates over many years as they battle the illness.

Ten Warning Signs
• Deliberate self-starvation with weight loss
• Intense, persistent fear of gaining weight
• Refusal to eat or highly restrictive eating
• Continuous dieting
• Excessive facial/body hair because of inadequate protein in the diet
• Compulsive exercise
• Abnormal weight loss
• Sensitivity to cold
• Absent or irregular menstruation
• Hair loss

Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms Explained
1.  Weight
15% below ideal body weight. Refusing to maintain a normal weight or above-normal weight for height and age.  Not everyone who is of a low weight is anorexic; it is important to recognize that it is the REFUSAL to maintain a normal weight that is the key factor.

It is sometimes difficult to identify anorexia in children because their height appears to be in proportion to their weight. A possible complication of an eating disorder is stunted growth in children. A pediatrician will need to carefully monitor him/her with a growth chart. Also, young children may not talk about weight but rather may describe physical complaints such as nausea or feelings of fullness.

2.  Intense Fear of Gaining Weight or Becoming Fat, Even if Underweight
This intense fear is powerful enough to cause individuals to diet to the point of starvation. While the term anorexia means loss of appetite, this is not true of anorexia nervosa. A person with anorexia is hungry but he or she is afraid to eat because of the fear. Often specific foods are avoided, especially those that are high in fat and calories. Often individuals will become vegetarians and want to eat healthily when indeed the issue is the fear of gaining weight.

A person with anorexia constantly thinks about food – how many calories, how many fat grams, how much exercise is needed if you eat a cookie? How many times do you check the scale?

There is always the attempt to try to control eating because of the fear of gaining weight. Often meals are avoided or eaten very slowly, pondering each bite, fearing that eating will surely make one fat.
These thoughts begin to control a person’s mind 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A person’s entire life can be centered on this one issue, depriving that person of joy in friends, fun and family.

3. Body Image Problems
When a person with anorexia looks into a mirror he/she does not often see an accurate reflection. A person with anorexia sees him/herself as fat, even if he/she is dangerously thin. This is a very frightening experience and feels very real – driving the person to diet.

Sometimes a person with anorexia can accept that he/she is very thin but cannot accept how dangerous the situation really is. It is difficult for him/her to understand that a very low weight and dangerous dieting habits can actually be fatal. The death rate for anorexia is higher than for any other psychiatric illness.

4. Amenorrhea or Absence of Menstruation
Missing 3 periods is usually the criteria for this state. Of course, these criteria are not applied to males, young females who have not started their periods, or females who are on birth-control pills.

Types of Anorexia
Many individuals with anorexia will severely restrict their calories sometimes taking in only a few hundred calories a day or just water. This is called the RESTRICTING TYPE. Our bodies do not like to starve. Remember, the individual with anorexia has an appetite; he/she just tries to control it. It is very difficult when a person is starving not to want to eat. What happens to many individuals is that they lose control, they eat, or eat something they feel they should not have eaten. For these individuals, this might mean something as simple as a cookie, a normal meal or even a binge. With the fear of gaining weight, they may vomit or exercise. This type of anorexia is called the BINGE-EATING/PURGING TYPE, one of the most dangerous forms of an eating disorder.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food (e.g., binge-eating), and feeling a lack of control over the eating. This binge-eating is followed by a type of behavior that compensates for the binge, such as purging (e.g., vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics), fasting and/or excessive exercise.

Unlike anorexia, people with bulimia can fall within the normal range for their age and weight. But like people with anorexia, they often fear gaining weight, want desperately to lose weight, and are intensely unhappy with their body size and shape. Usually, bulimic behavior is done secretly, because it is often accompanied by feelings of disgust or shame. The binging and purging cycle usually repeats several times a week. Similar to anorexia, people with bulimia often have coexisting psychological illnesses, such as depression, anxiety and/or substance abuse problems. Many physical conditions result from the purging aspect of the illness, including electrolyte imbalances, gastrointestinal problems, and oral and tooth-related problems.

Seven symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa:
Preoccupation with food
Binge eating, usually in secret
Vomiting after bingeing
Abuse of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills
Denial of hunger or drugs to induce vomiting
Compulsive exercise
Swollen salivary glands
Broken blood vessels in the eyes

Bulimia Nervosa symptoms explained
1. Binge Eating
All of us will overeat now and then; doing so is pretty normal behavior. For instance at Thanksgiving, we all sit down at the dinner table and probably overindulge. Binge eating in bulimia has certain characteristics that make it much different.

A binge is defined by several characteristics, including consuming a larger amount of food than most people would eat during the same time period (potentially thousands of calories) within a short period of time (typically 2 hours or less). It is also characterized by a feeling that one CANNOT STOP or CONTROL one’s eating, accompanied by physical or emotional distress.

2. Purging
Following a binge, an individual may feel consumed with fear, guilt or shame and the need to try to undo his/her behavior. Purging is a way to compensate for binging. Purge behaviors come in many forms: vomiting, taking laxatives or water pills, starving or excessive exercise.

It is important to recognize that purging rarely works well for weight loss. Laxatives and diuretics make a person lose water not weight. Even vomiting seems to be ineffective; it has been reported that 50-75% of the calories have already been absorbed.

3. Bingeing and Purging occurs more than 2 x a week for at least 3 months

4.Body Image: Self evaluation and self esteem is overly influenced by weight and shape
Many people in our culture are concerned with how they look, what they weigh or how to change the body parts they don’t like. In bulimia, there is an intense connection between self respect and the way the body looks. We can be great in a lot of things, but if our thighs are too big, well then, we are just not good enough.

What about weight in bulimia nervosa?
Weight can be normal, underweight or overweight. Unlike anorexics who can be often identified by their low weight, it is more difficult to identify bulimics. Weight can also dramatically shift, and large swings might be an indicator that someone is developing an eating disorder.

Binge Eating Disorder
Binge-eating disorder is characterized by recurrent binge-eating episodes during which a person feels a loss of control over his or her eating. Unlike bulimia, binge-eating episodes are not followed by purging, excessive exercise or fasting. As a result, people with binge-eating disorder often are overweight or obese. They also experience guilt, shame and/or distress about the binge-eating, which can lead to more binge-eating.

In 1997, binge eating disorder (BED) was included into the DSM-IV as a provisional diagnostic category requiring further study. About 30% of the participants in weight loss programs meet criteria for BED. The prevalence of BED in the general population is 2%; BED is 1.5 times more common in women than men. In treating obese patients with BED there are several potential goals of treatment, including cessation of binge eating and improvement of eating-related psychopathology (e.g. concerns about weight and shape, restraint eating), weight loss or prevention of further weight gain, improvement of physical health, and reduction of psychiatric comorbidity. Contrary to expectations, weight loss programs do not appear to worsen the eating disorder, and successful treatment of binge eating does not automatically promote weight loss. Controlled treatment studies have shown that psychotherapeutic approaches and drug treatment may successfully reduce binge eating episodes in patients with BED. Remission rates are generally high (e.g. 50% and more following cognitive behavioral therapy), and the overall prognosis is better than for patients with bulimia nervosa

*All information above is obtained through the National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Spring Pictures!

Photo Shoot with Tyler at Starstudded Photography

Such an incredible night

Starstudded Photography

Ashley Ramsey (Miss Orlando) and Elizabeth Fechtel (Orlando's Teen) Two AMAZING women!!

Children's Miracle Network Radiothon at Shand's Hospital for Children

Add caption



Children's Miracle Network event in Orlando- Photogenic Baby Awards


Project Dance!


National Eating Disorder Association Gala in NYC with the beautiful Allison Kreiger Walsh (Miss Florida 2006)


Now what?

This has taken me a while to get started beacuse I have been running all over the state, wait, make that the nation fueled by caffeine and a mission! I was crowned Miss Orange County in January and ever since, I seem have this fire under my rear! Oh wait, that's always there. :) Really though, I was in complete disbelief when they called my name. I had been texting my mom backstage throughout the pageant, "Man did I mess on-stage question up, or what?!" "Welp, there goes talent..." "Well, at least we got to have a girls' weekend in Orlando!" So, here I am thinking about how if I put my weight on my heel, my shoes wouldn't hurt as much, thinking about what the girl's face was going to look like when she won (always a favorite of mine), and where would be a go to dinner afterwards and they say, "Your new Miss Orange County 2011 is...Brittany Hagan!"

Winning a pageant is like being in that state where you're just waking up or falling asleep. You know there are people out in the audience, but you can't really see their faces. You hear the music, but it doesn't really register as a song you've ever heard before. All you can think is, "Ok, one step at a time...down the stairs now...I think I'm supposed to bend down... ok how long do I take my first walk?" All the while, you can't stop smiling like an idiot. It's a weird and amazing feeling when you work so hard for something, and then it actually happens. It's like you're yearning for so long, every thought, every ounce of your being goes into attaining that goal, then all of a sudden, it's there in front of you. What do you do with it?

This is the age old question. When I won my first title in Indiana, we went out to Steak n' Shake afterwards. Bob Knight was there, of the infamous Bob and Wilma. He looked right at me and said, "Ok, you won! Now what?" I looked at him, terrified. This is the man that had completely stumped me in interview as a judge two pageants before at Miss Duneland. I will always know the state flower because of Bob. I said..."Ummm... gosh....Work on my platform?" I knew that was a weak answer, but it wasn't until I actually had been through the ups and downs of a titleholder that I knew what value I wanted to add where. Yet, it seems to be evolving all the time. The first year, after visiting Riley Hospital for Children, I knew I had to do everything in my power to help those precious kiddos, and they were my inspiration that year. The second year, I knew I wanted to be Miss Indiana to spread my message, so I did everything in my power to grow into a woman capable of that job learning who I was and becoming fearless enough to put it out there. This year, it's everything. Absolutely everything. I feel my heart outstretched in so many different directions, sometimes I feel like I'm just going to burst. So this year, how do I embody this theme I've found to pop up in my life time after time. What's next? Now what?

1.) My platform. I absolutely loved the work I did with autism. I loved the children and families I met along the way and will continue to be a champion for the cause. However, I believe that we can affect people most when we make ourselves vulnerable. So, because of my personal experience with an eating disorder for several of my teen years, I know that after 11 years of silence, it is time to speak out. But this is not about me, about my story. I've told my story, I've healed, and my family has healed. This is about the 11 million people and everyone that loves them. It's for those who are still in that dark place, still struggling everyday with this illness. This fight is for them. My platform is called "Redefining Reality: The Awareness and Prevention of Eating Disorders." In a world full of unrealistic expectations, my message is simple: Be real. Be healthy. Redefine the Reality that we have created that perfection is beautiful. You are imperfectly perfect right now, just as you are. Throughout the year I will be posting pictures of events I do through this crusade, information about the prevention and awareness of eating disorders, and tons of other stuff, so keep checking back to see how YOU can help! It's closer to home than you think.

2.) Embracing this organization. I have gotten the rare opportunity to fall in love with the Miss America Organization (MAO) in Indiana with my first two years in the system I got to see them crown their first Miss America the year I started competing. I have had the opportunity to compete on a national level meeting amazing women from almost every state of the country. Now, I get to end my journey as a contestant in my new beautiful, hospitable, warm :) home of Florida. I have always loved the MAO, but not until this year have I gotten emotional months before just thinking about my last closing statement at my last pageant interview ever (which will be Miss Florida in July). I have never had such amazing sister queens to learn from and grow with. I have been blessed with fantastic directors before, and still, Don and Juan never cease to amaze me. I always leave their house with a gigantic smile. I always come away from our meetings with an inside joke. I always end up feeling as if I have found two friends in Florida who totally and completely "get me." They have enhanced my MAO experience when I thought it couldn't be better.

3.) Prepare to become Miss Florida. "That which we focus on grows." This is a quote that I live by. I have no control over who the judges see fit to become Miss Florida, but I do have control over how much I prepare to become my most capable self. And so far, it has been every day, all day, but not in an exhausting way, in an exhilarating way. My mom is constantly checking in on me. "Aren't you tired yet?" "Have you gotten sick from all the running around you do yet?" My answer to her is, "When you love what you do, it's energizing, not exhausting." I am constantly meeting new to people, listening to people's stories, going to every appearnce and event humanly possible, speaking out to schools, getting in top physical shape (my mornings keep getting earlier and earlier thanks to Chris Kelly at Peak Fitness :), going to multiple dance classes every week to tighten my talent, and learning every day a little more about what I am capable of. It has all been baby steps, but I am confident that if my preparation gets to meet opportunity, I will be ready.


Through all of this year, I will keep you updated with pictures, words, information, and LOVE for anyone who takes their time to read this.

There's one thing I haven't been able to stop thinking about since the night of Orange County, and that is, "How weird is it that every local title I've won has been a brand new program with nobody coming before me?" I imagine God looking down and laughing, and saying in his big, booming God-like voice, "Now Brittany, you know you're not really one to follow in someone else's footsteps, don't you?"

Here's to love and laughter,
Britt