Healing Her OCD

 She was given the chance to go somewhere more secluded. Shaking her head, Hannah reasserted, “Oh no, I want people to hear. Talking about it in public doesn’t bother me at all.”

Hannah Kasch is a sophomore music student at Loyola University of Chicago. 

Hannah Kasch, bottom left corner with bright red hair. 

She’s been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), the fourth most common mental disorder in the United States. 

It can be a debilitating disease that many people misinterpret as mere behavioral quirks.

Settling down at the small table in a crowded cafe along Lake Michigan, Kasch comfortably crossed her legs.

 She wore a black knit hat pulled down over red rubicund hair that wafted around her neck like bright smoke. She wore matching cherry lipstick and sharply drawn on black eyeliner around the edges of her soft brown eyes. 

The floating clouds and idle pale blue waves outside reflected on the towering glass windows as the 20-year-old, aspiring singer began to tell her story.

Junior Year

“The first time I knew I had a problem was junior year of high school,” Kasch said. 

It was her first day at St. Walters High School in West Chicago. That evening, there was a birthday party for one of her best friends.

“When I turned 16 I didn’t even want to get my license in the first place,” she emphasized. “I didn’t want that type of responsibility. I remember being at home, and becoming so anxious thinking about driving to the birthday party. It got to the point where I just couldn’t get myself to drive anymore,” Kasch said.

“I didn’t end up going to the birthday party because of my nervousness.”

Some of her friends were upset with her for not coming; all of them lacked understanding. “I told them, I don’t know what to tell you, I just couldn’t drive myself there. Then they started talking down to me, yelling at me and telling me what to do. You don’t do that,” she said.

That October, her fear of driving was building “I was driving to a football game alone, and I had almost got into a car accident, but I didn’t. Everything was fine; I just had to hit on the brakes really quick. But I was anxious after that,” she said.

“On the way home after the game, I was driving and I hit a pothole. I freaked out because I thought I had hit a person,” she said, and then paused before continuing.

“I was sincerely terrified that I had hit a person, even though I knew that it was just a pothole. I couldn’t stop being terrified.”

According to the Association of Anxiety and Depression, children and adults with OCD suffer from unwanted and intrusive thoughts that they can't seem to get out of their heads (obsessions), often compelling them to repeatedly perform ritualistic behaviors and routines (compulsions) to try and ease their anxiety. Sleep issues often accompany the disorder according to Psychologist David De Boer.

During her junior and senior year Hannah had trouble sleeping. “I would keep on waking up in the middle of the night, I would never get in a deep REM cycle,” she said.

She started to use body scan therapy, where she would tense certain parts of her body then relax them to help ease her mind. 

“Sometimes if I wasn’t sleeping well, I would get up an read, go downstairs watch TV, get water, watch a movie or even do some exercising: stretch, sit-ups, run in place, turn my headphones on and dance. I just needed to burn off some anxiety,” she said.

“I also dreaded going to school. My group of friends wasn’t understanding and supportive of me. They were immature, I guess.”

According to De Boer, Associate Director of the Wellness Center at Loyola, OCD affects a small percentage of Loyola students.

Lack of understanding is common and can lead to stigma.  

“Many people don’t understand mental illnesses, so they are afraid of it and react to their fear or anxiety through stigmatizing it or distancing themselves, instead of trying to understand it,” he said.  

Senior Year

Kasch still felt reluctant to drive to school during her last year of high school. 

“If I did drive to school, I’d leave at 6:40 when class started at 7:40. It was a 20-minute drive.  I just had to leave early enough that there was no one on the roads. And when I’d leave I would double check everything, garage doors, make sure my dog wasn’t in the driveway, all the doors were locked since my family would still be sleeping,” she said.

These types of worries manifested from her fear of hurting other people.

“It’s because my OCD was really bad. I remember one morning I had eaten some toast with peanut butter on it and afterwards I have washed my hands at least twice but when I got into choir practice I was so afraid that I had peanut butter all over my hands and someone was allergic to peanut butter. I was a nervous wreck, I called my mom and cried over the phone, just over something as silly as this.”

Due to her anxiety, she never imagined that she would be traveling in France by herself; that’s exactly where she found herself in the summer after her high school graduation.

France

In June 2011, two weeks before her nearly two-week long trip to Paris with a school group she decided it was time she see a therapist. 

“After talking with her for less than 20 minutes, she knew right away I had OCD,” Kasch laughed. 

“She pulled out a pamphlet called Hit and Run OCD, it was spot on with every symptom I had. It was hilarious!”

Kasch never imagined that she had been living with OCD for all those years.

“I thought that I was just anxious or a scaredy cat, not actually sick.  I never was too compulsive, I was obsessive,” she said.  It was a relief to know that it actually was something, and I just wasn’t anxious and depressed but that these symptoms are tied with OCD. My family was also surprised, but once they read the pamphlet they knew too.”

She had been studying French for years preparing for this moment- the big trip. 

She had not been prescribed medication yet.

“We landed in Paris on my 18th birthday. Immediately, we went 4 hours north to Rouen, which is the sight of Joan of Arc's death.  I went to a little cafe and ordered my first meal in France. It was about a 2-foot long ‘jambon fromage,’" she said

After returning to her hotel that night, however, she had an anxiety attack.

 “Around 3 a.m I had a terrible meltdown. It was 8 p.m. Chicago time so I called my mom. I was terribly homesick especially since I had just turned 18 and no one knew.  I’m not the type to say it’s my birthday!” she said.

 She coped throughout the trip by texting and calling her family a lot.  

“When I was there, I felt like the world was melting around me.  I did have a great time, but  [now] I wish I had my medicine.  I felt really vulnerable and like I was crippled because I could function like everyone else. I wish I could do a few things over,” she said.

Returning home

After Kasch returned from France, her psychiatrist prescribed her Lexipro, an anti-depression and anxiety medication, which she is still on to this day. Rituals like washing her hands have brought control. But therapy worked on other ways to find calm.

“My hands would bleed sometimes because of it [washing them]. He’d say don’t wash your hands twice, just once. After once or twice it was fine though,” she said. “Driving was always hard. I still don’t like to drive.”

Therapy aimed to change her behavior to eliminate the rituals that helped ease her fears. At first these overwhelmed her.

“Having OCD is like recovering from a drug addiction. You will find a way to do what you want to do,” she said.

Also, others had to stop enabling her, forcing her to face her fears.

“The therapist told [my] mom and dad and sister not drive me anywhere. I’d call them, tell them where I was when I was leaving anyplace.” This would help reassure her, easing her fears of driving.
 “She (her therapist) told them not to baby me or act like I needed any attention.”  

Mindful Recovery

Now as a music student at Loyola University, she uses her talent as a form of therapy. “Part of singing is breathing correctly, really deep down in your belly. So when I need to calm down I do deep breathing.”

It's a similar type of mindful breathing used in yoga, which has also helped the Chicagoan since she started practicing in the last four years.

Hannah practicing yoga at Loyola University's gym. 

“My psychologist recommended yoga. It’s about being in the present moment and controlling your breathing,” she said.  “I’m chronically tense because of my OCD. I’ve been carrying all my stress in my shoulders, so yoga helps me with this. “

Like Hannah, Susan Grossman, Associate Dean of Loyola’s School of Social Work., has been practicing yoga for the last decade to help her with her own anxiety. 

She recommends it for many of her students.  “It helps people realize that all things are temporary, including their emotions. If one can step outside and just observe what they’re feeling instead of being overtaken by it, they can learn that it’s all part of a larger process,” she said.

Today

While the therapy and medication have helped manage her fears, Kasch still is extra cautious. “I just check to make sure nothing is in the outlets when I leave my room, don’t keep water by my bed because of extension cords by there and I jiggle my door to make sure it’s locked.”

The soon-to-be junior said that supportive networks are key to recovering from any mental illness.

“A lot of time people with mental illness are introverted and they need the extra attention by people. They aren’t ‘with other people.’ We can be around people but in a totally different world,” she said.

“You need to have people who understand what you have, and it’s even more important for people who have mental problems, they need to be able to know what they have. We’re all very similar, more so than dissimilar.”

 By: Shirley Coenen

Living with autism spectrum disorder

By: Anel Herrera

Jaehwan Seong’s artwork is full of detail. His work ranges from the mechanical parts of motorcycles and cars, to the realistic features of birds, bugs and mammals. Seong's interest in art started in 1995 when he started drawing.

"My parents brought me a sketchbook when I was very little, and I used crayons," says Seong. "I liked to draw landscapes."

Seong is a slander man with straight black hair in his early twenties. He wears a Carl Sandburg Orchestra shirt and faded blue jeans as he works.

Twenty-two-year-old Jaehwan Seong is 6,526 miles away from his native Seoul, South Korea. Seong and his family moved to the United States when he was eleven years old.  The family now live in suburban Orland Park. Seong has found a new home as an artist at Project Onward when he joined the gallery on June 2, 2012.

Project Onward is an organization dedicated to supporting the development of artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Serving as both a studio and gallery for the artists, the organization supports the artists by giving them a platform from which to work from.

"They do what they love and have so much talent," says Monica Schmidt who has visited the gallery several times. "You are greeted with the happiest hello and goodbye that makes you go back."

Nearly half of the artists at Project Onward are affected by autism spectrum disorders, Seong is one of them. His work is featured in "Smile with Your Mind: Autobiographies of Autism. According to its online site, the exhibit "hopes to replace mysteries and misconceptions about autism with authentic glimpses into individual experiences living and working on the spectrum."

Autism spectrum disorder and autism are both terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized by difficulties in socializing, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors.

Scientists don't know the exact causes of autism spectrum disorder, but research suggests that both genes and environment play important roles.
Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classify around 1 in 68 American children as on the autism spectrum.

ASD affects over 2 million individuals in the U.S. and tens of millions worldwide Studies also show that autism is four to five times more common among boys than girls.

Many people with ASD have verbal issues. But in Seong’s case, he expresses himself through visual art. Seong prefers to work with color pencils, as he sees paint as too messy and quickly to ruin a piece. Of all his pieces, Seong is most proud of his tiger drawing.

"The detail in this picture, I love it," says Seong of the piece. "This is a very nice painting, the background and the tiger fur. The tiger nose is my favorite, it's very stylish."

At first, Seong did not believe he was capable ofcompleting the piece. Once he got started, he realized the real challenge was believing in himself.

"I saw and the picture and I said, 'no, I can't do that,'" says Seong of his favorite portrait which took him weeks to complete. "But Robyn said, 'yes you can Jaehwan! Trust you[rself].'"

Robyn Jablonski, artist coordinator of the gallery, was not the only one impressed with his work. Seong says customers love his animal pieces and his mom always compliments him on how realistic they are.

"My mom [asked], 'how did you do that? You can draw animals very, very good. It looks real...real animal.'"

Seong says the secret is simply practicing. Practicing makes the drawing process easier and makes objects a more realistic feel.

Aside from art, Seong also expresses himself musically.

Seong joined the Carl Sandburg Orchestra, a high school in his hometown of Orland Park.

"I'm very interested in Orchestra," says Seong. "I'm very interested in [Ludwig Van] Beethoven music and [Antonio] Vivaldi the pianist. Classical music, violin music, piano music and all kind of instrument music I put on my iPod touch. I listen everyday [while] exercising, walking, running."

Learning the piano was significantly harder than learning the violin for Seong.

"I first started playing the violin in 1997. Learning the piano was very hard. I tried to practice the piano but I was very tired. My piano teacher said 'Jaehwan wake up! Don't sleep, wake up! Keep practicing.' I am better at the violon, [at the] piano not too good."

Exercising is also another interest of Seong, he exercises while listening to his music regularly. He also enjoys Taekwondo and swimming.

Seong and the other and the other artists at Project Onward sell their pieces and receive 50 percent of the sale. But, business has been especially hard for the artists since their move from the Chicago Cultural Center in the summer of 2013. The group moved to the fourth floor of the Bridgeport Art Center. While the traffic is not nearly as high, the artists can now work without all the distractions.

"It is very different," says Seong. "At the Cultural Center, lots of costumers. Here, it is very quiet. No more customers here in Bridgeport. It's slow business. It's hard business to make money."

Amelia Sawyer, who has worked at Project Onward for three years says the organization has expanded events and partnerships to attract more people into the gallery.

"We were able to split the profit 70/30 before but now the split is 50/50," says Sawyer. "It's just like a normal gallery."

But as Chuckie Johnson a fellow artist at the gallery says about the tough business, "One day, someone is going to come along and say 'I’m going to get this.'"

The proceeds from Seong's sales will go towards a fund to help him buy his first car.

In the future, Seong plans to attend the School of Arts Institute's Continuing Studies Program. Most importantly, Seong wants to be accepted for his talents and capabilities.

The struggle to cope with ADHD

 

A brain of someone with ADHD. (Credit: adhd-brain.com)

It was a few days before Memorial Day 2013; Nicole remembers the exact weekend. Her sister didn’t come home from school that Thursday night. She didn’t answer any texts, phone calls or Facebook messages. Her friends didn’t know where she was, or they were covering for her. Either way, Nicole*’s 17-year-old baby sister was missing. In the Chicago suburban town with a population of 20,000, kids didn’t run away, or at least those stories weren’t shared.

 

            The following afternoon Nicole got a phone call from an unknown number. It was from Ann*, her sister. She was safe, but she wasn’t coming home. Instead she was packing. The then-high school junior spent the next few days at a friend’s house.

 

            “We knew where she was then, but I was still was so mad at her,” Nicole, 20, said. “I thought she was being selfish, leaving our family. She didn’t realize how much it affected me personally. It broke my heart thinking she wasn’t happy here and that she didn’t trust me enough to tell me how she was feeling.”

 

The sisters were as different in personality as their looks. With the exception of their blue eyes, they looked nothing alike. Nicole’s blond locks contrasted Ann’s deep brunette hair. Nicole looked like their dad; Ann looked like their mom.

 

The summer of 2013 marked a turning in point in Ann’s life, in her family’s life too.

 

Ann has hyperactive-impulsive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. She was diagnosed in 2011 at the age of 15.

 

            Although Ann came home a few days after the Memorial Day holiday, things were different. The family of five went to therapy for one session, but never returned, Nicole moved out of the room the sisters had shared for the past 13 years.

 

 “I do things all the time without thinking about it and I think that to an extent it is the ADHD,” Ann said. “The other part is just me being stupid. I don’t take the time to consider what I’m doing. I just kind of go with it and be really impulsive.”

Her actions last summer are the perfect example, she said. “I was just like, ‘I don’t like you and I’ll decide if I ever want to even come back.’ That’s my best example…. There’s a line when it’s part disorder and [and part] just being stupid. I think ADHD is a factor, but I’m not blaming it on that or making an excuse but I definitely think it was a factor.”

ADHD, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, is one of the most common childhood disorders. Symptoms include trouble staying focused and paying attention, as well as controlling one’s own behavior and hyperactivity. There are three subtypes, which are classified as predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, predominantly inattentive, and combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive.

Ann was diagnosed with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD at the age of 15. The average age of the onset of ADHD is 7 years old. The disorder affects 9 percent of children ages 13 to 18 in the United States, according to the NIMH. . It can continue into adulthood, although some grow out of it.

             Ann didn’t realize that she may have ADHD until her therapist, who she was already seeing because of a personal issue with a friend her freshman year of high school, brought up the possibility.

“Once we kind of resolved that [personal] issue…we started talking more about organization skills and that kind of stuff because that’s when I wasn’t doing that well in school anymore,” Ann said. “They said that maybe there was a bigger issue and not just because I don’t feel like [doing my school work] so that’s when they decided to test me for ADHD.”

            At that point, Ann met with a psychiatrist near her hometown. The actual test took about an hour, she said. She sat in front of a computer and directions on the screen indicated that she was supposed to press a certain button when a certain shape appeared on the screen.

            “It was more like a game than a questionnaire,” Ann said.

            When the results came back, they showed that Ann had the most impulsive answers. They tested her for two different types of ADHD to determine which she was affected by the most.  

“The impulsiveness came from instead of me seeing the shape on screen, I’d be like ‘Oh shit, there’s a shape on the screen’,” Ann said. “I wasn’t really thinking about ‘I’m supposed to do this for this one or I’m not supposed to do anything for this kind of thing.’”

Her inability to recognize what messages her brain receives and what exactly she is supposed to do with those messages, indicated impulsivity.

Ann explained that her ADHD affects her life each day, even simple tasks such as cleaning her room.

 

“When mom tells me to go clean my room I can receive the message, but I don’t get all of the messages, I get them but they don’t actually go to my brain,” Ann said. “That’s what the actual disorder is, because my brain doesn’t process all the messages. Other people get the entire message and realize that they have to go do it now.”

 

Instead of completing the task assigned to her, she said she gets distracted and doesn’t do what she is supposed to and then eventually forgets what she was supposed to do.

 

Before the diagnosis, she didn’t think that her behavior or choices were connected to any type of mental illness.

 

“I never noticed anything [within myself] and was never like ‘Maybe there’s something wrong,’” Ann said.  “I think mom and dad might have, but I don’t think that ever really crossed my mind besides having mild depression.… But when they started telling me about ADHD I was like that makes a lot of sense.”

“When they were telling her about ADHD’s symptoms at first, I think she finally realized she’s not so different than other people,” Ann’s mom, Joy, said. “She’s not weird or strange, there are others that feel and think the same way she does and there are ways to work with it.”

Upon her diagnosis, Ann was prescribed Concerta to counteract the ADHD symptoms. She takes 36 mg daily; 56 mg is the average dose, she said, so she is prescribed below the average.

 

Concerta is a methylphenidate and is the only ADHD medication that lasts for an entire day. Concerta is the only ADHD treatment with the OROS^® delivery system, which means that one dose in the morning, will lead to the release of medication into the body at an increasing amount throughout the day.

 

Lately, the now 18-year-old has been taking her medication less frequently and can function without it, she says. However, for the first few years after her diagnosis, there was a visible difference in her behavior between the days she took her medicine and the days she did not.

 

“Me, I’m not as hyperactive as some people,” Ann said. “Most of the time if I didn’t take [the medication] I’d just be laying around all day and not have any motivation to do anything. I’d constantly be falling asleep because I didn’t have anything to do today. I’d be laying around on a Saturday when I’m off [work] and mom would be like ‘You didn’t take your medicine today, did you?’”

Ann doesn’t see her therapist anymore, but she does go in to see her psychiatrist once a month to renew her prescription. She says that she has gone so many times now, that she knows every question he will ask her each visit.

 

However, in the past few weeks she hasn’t been taking her medication. She used to take it almost every day, but she doesn’t notice a difference any more whether she takes the medication or not.

“My symptoms don’t change every day because it’s a constant thing, but [it’a matter of] me deciding how much I want to work with it that day,” Ann said. “[Whether or not] I even take my medicine every day that for me depends on what I’m doing that day, like if I had to wake up early for school or work I’d take my medicine that day.”

I think I am already starting to grow out of my ADHD,” Ann said. “I know the difference between what I physically can’t do and when I’m just being lazy.”

While she may see a difference in herself, what about other people that she interacts with daily?

Joy said that she does see a difference in her at certain points in time. At the start of a semester or when she puts her mind to it, she’ll apply herself to her schoolwork for about two or three weeks, but then that motivation dies and she won’t make such an effort anymore, Joy said.

“I think she thinks that she can’t do it,” Joy said. “But she’s an extremely smart girl, she does great on tests, but she needs to apply herself and realize she is capable of success. I know it; she just has to believe it.”

The experience and knowledge Ann has gained about ADHD over the years has helped her to understand it in others as well.

“It made a huge difference when I started learning about my ADHD,” Ann said. “I think it helped when I was tutoring [a 9-year-old with ADHD] and I could recognize her symptoms so I know how to help her learn [the material] more, instead of being annoyed with her and be like ‘just pay attention.’  I could understand why she wasn’t paying attention all the time and teach her some techniques that I have learned.”

Ann will graduate from high school in June, with plans to attend junior college in the fall.            

Almost a year after the difficult Memorial Day, Nicole and Ann text almost every day and they plan to go shopping for Ann’s prom together. 

            “The trust is restored [in our relationship],” Nicole said. “It took a long time and if you would have told me we would be this close again in less than 12 months, I would never have believed you, but we’ve made it this far.

“I can honestly say that the thing I am most proud of is my relationship with my sister and how far she has come to get her life on track.”

* Note—names have been changed.

 By Emily Brown

A Strange Onset of Anorexia

Emily eats a similar looking "sandwich."
Photo By: Parhan Sadhi/CreativeCommons

Runt. Runt-a-ta. Runt. Runt-a-ta. Runt. Runt-a-ta. The ball bearing rollers of Emily’s Pilates machine pumps up and down in rhythm as she exercises. Over and over. The sound is Emily’s mantra, and sometimes it lasts five hours. With each rep, more sweat pools at a spot on her shirt and her bones crackle like elastic bands snapping in synchronization. Her blue eyes squint and her sunflower blonde hair whips as she reaches the pinnacle of exhaustion.

After the workout in her apartment, it is time for lunch: turkey sandwiches. She takes a slice of cucumber and places a thin piece of turkey on top of the cucumber slice, folding it carefully as if she was tying a bow. On top of the turkey, she squeezes out a dollop of Dijon mustard. She doesn’t bother covering the sandwich with another cucumber slice. She generally has no more than three of these sandwiches in a day, and only scraps of food in between.

This is a day in the life of Emily, a 20-year-old with anorexia nervosa.

About 14 months ago, Emily developed anorexia nervosa, or simply anorexia. It is a life-threatening disorder with symptoms that include an intense fear of gaining weight, which can lead to the restriction of food intake and an unhealthy amount of exercise.

Knee Surgery

“I had to get knee surgery,” said Emily. “I tore a bunch of things in my left knee. My ACL, MCL, meniscus. I fractured the ends of the bones. And my knee cap was dislocated.”

Emily had been training to be a competitive weight lifter. Emily is 5’6” and at the time, had a lean, muscular build.

“I was always thin, but I had so much natural muscle,” said Emily. She had thick quads and firm buttocks. During one of her training sessions in 2012, she performed a clean and jerk that resulted in her knee collapsing.

Emily needed surgery to repair the torn ligaments and as a result, months of physical therapy.

“Immediately after the injury, my leg atrophied,” said Emily. “It went from having a ton of mass, to being a toothpick.” As a result of not working out, the rest of her body followed suit, and the muscle mass disappeared.

In fact, she lost roughly 60 pounds in two months.  

Resenting Weight Gain

Emily attributed this event as the mechanism that set in motion her anorexic compulsions.

“As I rehabbed in physical therapy, I noticed the weight was coming back. I guess at that point I had gotten used to how skinny I was that I kind of resented the weight gain.”

Emily’s resentment progressed to fear over only a few weeks. As she was able to recover from her injury, she was able to work out more. But it wasn’t her usual Olympic lifts, like squatting, power cleans and deadlifts-- it was extreme amounts of exhaustive cardiovascular exercise.

 “When I wasn’t in class or sleeping, I was trying to lose weight.”

 Mary Beth, Emily’s mother, was at first proud of Emily’s determination after surgery. “I was amazed that she was working out so hard,” said Mary Beth. “I told her to wait until she was at full strength to work out, but she said she needed to. I guess I thought she was just determined.”

Emily’s diet changed as well. She not only began restricting what she ate, but even on occasions, would purge by vomiting to lose quick pounds.

“I just thought it was a logical thing to do if I wanted to lose weight,” said Emily.

“It was so hard to tell something was wrong, because it seemed like she had lost all the weight from the surgery,” said Laura, Emily’s older sister.

Laura recalled when she started wondering if Emily was anorexic. “I remember going to lunch when I visited her,” said Laura. “Normally, she has an outrageous appetite, but when I ordered a massive sandwich, she got a coffee and a side of asparagus. I knew then that this was not an unusual occurrence.”

At that lunch, Emily knew her secret was out. “I think that’s when she noticed something was wrong. Truth is, I only got the coffee because I knew it was a diuretic,” Emily said.

Still, it wasn’t easy for Laura to approach Emily about her concerns. Laura watched her sister melting away. She didn’t know what to say to help Emily. Laura felt that if she complimented or even addressed Emily’s appearance in any way then Emily would feel that the eating and exercise habits were working. Conversely, if she said something negative about Emily’s appearance, Laura feared that Emily would increase her habits. It took awhile but they eventually had a hard talk, which helped Emily realize she needed support to change her ways.

Her Body’s Changes

Throughout this process, Emily’s body has undergone immense changes in the past several months.

“I went to the doctor during spring break and she told me that I am not producing enough estrogen, because I do not have enough body fat,” said Emily. “I don’t want to say what it is, but it is under 10 percent.”

The American Council of Exercise (ACE) research shows that the average body fat percentage for a woman is 26 to 31 percent. For an athlete, like Emily, the range should be around 14 to 24 percent. ACE research says that 10 to 13 percent body fat is the minimum amount of fat necessary for basic physical and physiological health. Anything lower could be dangerous to a person’s health.

“My hormones aren’t working correctly. I’ve had to switch birth controls and am on extra estrogen. Low vitamin levels. I am anemic as a result, so I am on extra vitamins, which I like taking as opposed to eating.” It is common for women with eating disorders to stop menstruating, according to the National Institute of Health.

Emily’s mom Mary Beth has felt helpless through the whole process. “It kills me that I couldn’t do more for her. I don’t know what I could have done. Maybe I could have caught it earlier on. Maybe I could have given her more self-confidence through her injury or at some point. I just don’t know.”

Working on Recovery

Emily is seeing a clinical therapist for counseling on her eating issues. For Emily, it is an issue of trying to accept her body for what it is, to simply try to eat more, and resist her compulsions to over-exercise.

Emily is still in physical therapy for her knee, and she is using the help of various physical therapists to control her over-exercising. “Usually they tire me out in 45 minutes or so I really don’t have enough energy to work out more,” said Emily.

The family still struggles how to best help Emily, especially her mom. “It is heartbreaking, knowing that your daughter has a poor self-image,” Mary Beth said. “I think she is beautiful, and it kills me that she thinks she needs to starve herself to feel better about herself.”

Posted By: Torey Darin

May is National Mental Health Awareness month

For the past 65 years, May has been known as National Mental Health Awareness month. This year's theme is "Mind Your Health," according to Mental Health America.

The goal for the month is to:

"Build public recognition about the importance of mental health to overall health and wellness; inform people of the ways that the mind and body interact with each other; and provide tips and tools for taking positive actions to protect mental health and promote whole health."

By visiting the Mental Health America website, one can take a quick assessment to screen for four common mental health conditions: Depression, anxiety, bipolar and PTSD.

About one in every five adults will have a mental health condition any given year, according to the site.

There is also a calendar on the site to download to improve your mental health every day of the month.

By Emily Brown

Steve Bogira talk

Steve Bogira, spoke with our class about his career as a senior writer for the Chicago Reader.

Bogira  is originally from the south side of Chicago and he graduated from Northwestern University. He worked briefly for the Chicago Tribune, before moving to the Chicago Reader. Bogira sites more freedom to write about what he wants to and in greater detail as his reasons for the move. 

Bogira is the race and poverty beat writer for the "Reader."He also authored the book "Courtroom 302." 

"I write about stories involving parts of the city that don't get enough attention," Bogira said. 

Urban poverty is one of Bogira's main interests, especially reporting on mental and physical health, as well as criminal justice in those societies. 

Bogira has covered a wide variety of stories within those topics. He likes to bring attention to the lesser known news stories that exist in these societies. 

For example in the late 1980s, in a high-rise apartment building, one of the most dangerous at the time, on the south side of Chicago, a woman was killed by thieves who entered her home through her medicine cabinet. Bogira wrote the article about diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Ruthie McCoy's death. 

To effectively report for his 5,000-plus word feature stories, Bogira speaks with family members of the subject of the story, neighbors, mentors, medical experts. Often, he relies on court transcripts, police reports and details from the lawyers in a case. 

A major issue that journalists must consider, Bogira said, is the level of access they will have to the various elements, details and sources involved in the story. That is something writers have to consider, especially for longer projects, Bogira said. 

Bogira's structure is unique, especially within his longer stories, because they do not always develop in a chronological manner, they skip from flashbacks to flashforwards or the present. 

He doesn't write his articles from beginning to end during the writing process. Instead he focusses mostly on the lede and the end of a story first; the middle comes last. 

Another element critical when reporting a story is skepticism. A reporter must double-check every fact and detail to avoid errors.

"If your mom says she loves you, check it out," Bogira said about the level of skepticism. 

If a writer is unsure of the validity of someone's statement, be sure to attribute the statement to that person. 

Bogira now spends four to six weeks on any given feature story, which usually hits the 5,000 word count. He used to spend three months on a story and that story would be eight to ten thousand words. 

"People are eager to talk, especially to those who don't often get listened to," Bogira said. 

Beat reporting is also unique because the reporter learns in greater depth what they are writing about, since they are focussed on one environment regularly. 

Bogira recommends paying attention to every little thing when reporting a story to get the little details that make a story more memorable. 

Bogira still keeps in touch with several of the people he's written about, including 

"We're 'just presenting facts,' but really we're a guide to the reader in certain directions," Bogira said. "I start with the background then explain the solo crime to empathize."

Follow Steve on Twitter: @stevebogira 

By Emily Brown

Workplace stress

      People are working longer hours, taking their work home with them and are all-around more stressed in the workplace, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

      The CDC cites a Northwestern National Life study, which reports that one-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. In the same article, the CDC also cites a study by St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, which reports that, “Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than are any other life stressor-more so than even financial problems or family problems.”

      The CDC defines job stress as “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.”

Job stress, according to the CDC, can lead to higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders (back and upper extremity), psychological disorders, injuries at the workplace and some studies suggest a greater risk of suicide, cancer, ulcers and impaired immune function.

      The American Institute of Stress reported that The Seventh Annual Labor Day Survey about “Attitudes in the American Workplace VII”. The survey found that 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job and almost half of them admitted they need help in managing stress. Helpguide.org provides tips on how to deal with workplace stress:

1.       Recognize the warning signs

2.       Take care of yourself

a.       Regular exercise

b.      Eat healthy

c.       Get enough sleep

3.       Prioritize and organize tasks

For more tips on how to reduce workplace stress, check out helpguide.org.


By Emily Brown