EATING DISORDERS WORKSHOP: What to Look For and How to Help

The UTSC Eating Disorder Association, in collaboration with The Mental Health Network, the UTSC Women and Trans Centre and the Mental Unity Group, organized their first-ever workshop on February 26th, 2018 in HW305. The workshop mainly focused on the topic “What to look for and how to help?”, where they invited two speakers: Candice Richardson, who is a student at UTSC, in which she talked about the misconceptions related to dieting, prevalence and signs/symptoms of Eating Disorders, eating disorders from a bio-psychosocial perspective, tools and resources of supporting someone with an eating disorder(s), followed by her own personal struggle with an eating disorder(s). Wendy, who is the main chief police officer from UTSC Campus Police, shared her own eating disorder story, some skills she used to overcome her eating disorder and the skills of maintaining a healthy mindset.

In between the two speakers, Amna, who is the VP of the club and MC for the event, read a story about the beliefs we are told when young and how they shape our actions, the lesson or moral of the story was that “we can break free from those beliefs as they don’t define us”. After reading the story, the attendees were given a sticky note and asked to write down one belief that’s not true and that they were told as a child so that they could break free from the belief by ripping up the sticky note.

Near the end of the workshop, an Q & A session was held and the attendees were able to ask questions and connect with and speak to each of the speakers individually. Overall, the event was a success and it was certainly an insightful evening full of many activities. The UTSC Eating Disorder Association will be organizing more fun, insightful and engaging events for next school year (2018/2019), so stay tuned!