Every-BODY Week promotes healthy self image for students

Campus Recreational Sports and the IU Health Center are hoping to educate students about the importance of a healthy body image through a series of events during Celebrate Every-BODY Week.    

Events will include a guest speaker, movie screening and jeans drive for charity. All events will focus on students shifting how they think about their bodies to a more positive perception.

“Four out of five women in the United States are dissatisfied with their appearance,” said Andy Fry, assistant director of Campus Recreational Sports. “Additionally, 78 to 95 percent of males would choose an ideal figure different than their own.”

This negative body image may begin as early as adolescence and often gets worse during college.

“Students begin comparing themselves to others,” said DeeDee Dayhoff, staff therapist at Counseling and Psychological Services. “Oftentimes, in their minds, they fall short.”

Kaleigh Carter, a freshman training to be a fitness leader in a kickboxing class, said comparing youself to other students can hurt body image.

“I think a lot of people here flaunt their bodies, so if you don’t have a strong self-image already, it can really make you feel like you aren’t good enough,” Carter said.

“Everyone I know wants to change something about their bodies.”
Exposure to media also influences the acceptance of stereotypical body types. The media promotes a muscular image for boys and a thin image for girls, Carter said.

“We get the feeling that we have to look that way to be liked,” she said.
Occasionally students respond to a negative body image by exercising too much. Fry said 22 percent of males meet behavioral criteria for excessive exercise.

“We want students to know when enough is enough,” Fry said. “Our mission is for students to form active and healthy lifestyles.”

Some key warning signs for excessive exercise include exercising through injury, exercising to justify food intake or daily exercise to the point of fatigue.

Earlier this year, Campus Recreational Sports placed banners in exercise facilities that gave fast facts about healthy exercise and contact information for students seeking help.

Roughly 1,200 business cards with contact information for Counseling and Psychological Services were taken last fall.

“If they are advertising those services, people must be using them,” Carter said. “It is good for students to know they are not alone.”

Counseling and Psychological Services holds individual and group therapy sessions that emphasize a recovery focused on “attention, acceptance and appreciation of their bodies,” Dayhoff said.

To get more information about healthy body image or to seek help, contact the IU Health Center at 812-855-5002 or Counseling and Psychological Services at 812-855-5711.

“You just have to know that everyone has different body types and learn to be comfortable with yourself,” Carter said.