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Collegiate Athletics: How Coaches Can Help Identify Eating Disorders
Contributor: Dr. Gregory Jantz, founder of The Center • A Place of HOPE and author of 30 books.
For many college athletes, their coach serves as a primary mentor and influence in their life. If you are one of those coaches, you have unique opportunities to lead, nurture and observe your student-athletes. You are, perhaps, better suited than any other adult in the college environment to notice physical and emotional signs of eating disorders among athletes.
Coaching Means Looking Out for Your Team
Here are ways for you, as a coach, to identify possible eating disorders, and actions you can take to be helpful.
Start by reviewing your own attitudes – and biases – toward weight, appearance, body image and diet. Are your values affecting the way you interact with and judge your athletes? If so, work to change these values and appreciate and respect the individuality of each athlete.
If you are a male coach instructing young women, educate yourself on why weight and body image is such a prominent and sensitive issue for them. Coach the “whole person” – their mind (self-esteem), body (fitness and health), and spirit (working at an activity as a team to achieve one common goal, and the joy and exaltation associated with being physically and mentally active).
Be mindful of any comments or even slight inferences, by you or others, relating to the need to lose weight, change body shape or appearance. Promote a positive self-image and esteem among your athletes.
Educate Yourself and Your Team
Combat disinformation regarding nutrition and ideal body weight. Promote healthy eating habits by emphasizing nutrition. Educate your athletes on how the body best metabolizes certain foods and how it struggles to convert others. Provide accurate information on body mass and weight relative to height.
Discuss with your coaching staff the indicators of eating disorders – weight loss, food restriction or binge eating, consistent fatigue, over-training, refusal to eat with the team, using the bathroom shortly after meals (can be a normal function, but can also be an indication of purging). Review how to address suspected disordered eating. Most athletes will avoid discussing or deny the existence of an eating disorder out of shame.
If you are concerned that an athlete may have an eating disorder, do not try to diagnose and heal them yourself. Help them get a professional consultation and, if diagnosed with a disorder, encourage them to get the professional treatment they need to regain their balance and happiness.
Emphasize Health
Especially for female athletes, do not weigh them as a matter of course. Emphasize healthy eating, exercise and maximizing their performance through proper nutrition, fitness, practice and rest.
Recognize that emphasizing losing weight can have two negative side effects: 1) It can actually reduce an athletes performance by reducing muscle mass and energy, 2) It can lead to an eating disorder if the practice of losing weight becomes pronounced and prolonged.
Take eating disorders very seriously. Individuals with eating disorders are at significantly higher risks of permanent physical ailments like: slow heart rates, low blood pressure, reduction in bone density, severe dehydration (leading to kidney failure), severe fatigue and lethargy, hair loss. For bulimics (those who purge food after eating): irregular heartbeat, inflames esophagus, tooth decay, IBS, ulcers.
Coaching provides an amazing opportunity to develop young athletes. It also comes with the responsibility to uplift young adults and, if needed, intervene and help them deal with serious health issues.
Community Discussion – Share your thoughts here!
Have your or your loved one, as an athlete struggling with disordered eating, been impacted by your coach? What were the results, what types of treatment did you seek out?
Authored by Dr. Gregory Jantz, founder of The Center • A Place of HOPE and author of 30 books. Pioneering whole-person care nearly 30 years ago, Dr. Jantz has dedicated his life’s work to creating possibilities for others, and helping people change their lives for good. The Center • A Place of HOPE, located on the Puget Sound in Edmonds, Washington, creates individualized programs to treat behavioral and mental health issues, including eating disorders, addiction, depression, anxiety and others.
The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer a discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals. We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.
Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on September 21, 2015. Published on EatingDisorderHope.com
