LSU Libraries and the Student Health Center joined together to host an event on March 6 for Eating Disorder Awareness Week. 

“Trash Your Insecurities” is an annual event the health center has put on at different locations on campus for the past eight years. At the event, health center representatives gave out resource booklets to help promote a healthy relationship with food and body image, as well as buttons and t-shirts. 

Activities included students writing down an insecurity on a piece of paper then throwing it away in a trash can and writing something they’re proud of on a giant whiteboard displayed outside the LSU Library.
Registered Dietitian for Wellness and Health Promotion Services, Emily Caire, said her department is considered the outreach arm of the health center. They do many on-campus events to get students involved. 

Caire said she is frequently invited to speak in classes by different professors on campus about the topic of eating disorders. She also serves on the eating disorders treatment team at the health center and individually works with students to provide services. 

“Being an outreach for this topic is part of my everyday life,” Caire said.  
Caire handed out brochures that were guides for students to recognize eating disorders, learn some facts about the topic and learn about the different dimensions of wellness. The health center also has a newsletter that students were invited to sign up for that provides information about the health center and all the services it offers. 

Caire said that raising awareness about this topic is important because there’re many ways an eating disorder can show up in different people that aren’t always recognizable. 

“Sometimes we may have a very narrow idea of what an eating disorder is,” Caire said. 

Caire said that it’s not always possible to tell that someone has an eating disorder by the way they look, because the issue is so complex. 

Social work junior Jasmine Garrison said she works at the health center in Wellness and Health Promotion Services and loves to do outreach work with students. Garrison said Caire asked her to attend this event with her, and Garrison immediately said yes. 

“When there is a chance to meet students and tell them about our services, I’m always there,” Garrison said. 

She said that spreading awareness about the resources that wellness services offer is important because no one knows about it. Garrison said that full-time students get free services at the health center, such as being able to see a dietician.  

Mechanical engineering junior Seth Cager said he saw this event when walking past the library. Seeing the free t-shirt, he decided to join in. Seth said he feels spreading awareness is important because many people don’t know how to stay consistent and develop healthy food habits.

“A lot of people try to use it as a shortcut, but it will happen naturally,” Cager said.

Environmental management systems junior Madison Horner said she heard about this event from the health center’s Instagram. 

“I saw their post and my class during that time was close by, so I figured I’d stop by and see what they have,” Horner said. 
Horner said that there are many misconceptions as to what an eating disorder can be, so it’s important for students to know the facts about it, especially in college. Horner said that she really liked how the health center set up the event and presented the topic.

“They presented it as something easily approachable,” Horner said. “They weren’t yelling at you as you walk by.”
Understanding the resources available to you as a student is important but understanding that you’re not alone is even more important. “Trash Your Insecurities” is an event that gives students the opportunity to realize that. 

“I would want anyone struggling with an eating disorder to know that they are not alone, and support is available both on campus and in the community,” Caire said.