16 – 17 Turl Street
Oxford
OX1 3DH
e: admin@srsh.co.uk
t: 01865 264168
Something Worth Talking About
Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2013
What is this campaign?
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Too many people suffering with Eating Disorders slip under the radar. They manage to hide
the eating disorder’s behaviour from their friends and family meaning that they can slip
further into their illness and often feel like no one cares enough to take any notice. It’s been
said numerous times that one of the worst things about having an Eating Disorder is the
feeling of isolation.
If friends and family can spot an eating disorder in its early stages and show the sufferer that
they care and want to help them- many people may be able to seek the support that they
desperately need and may be able to stop the eating disorder from manifesting. This
campaign will be aimed at friends and family rather than the sufferer themselves.
The main aspect of this campaign that we want to be stressed is to encourage talking about
eating disorders, with an aim of informing people about eating disorders enough that they
can pick up on the ‘warning signs’ through observing, but more importantly listening to their
friends and people around them.
The Campaign will largely be delivered through 2 channels
1. The first will be the poster included in this pack which will encourage people to think
about behaviours or phrases being used by people around them that they might not
have previously associated with eating disorders, but are ‘worth talking about’.
These posters will signpost people to our website, which will provide further content
and resources on the topic (available under the srsh.co.uk/for-friends section of the
website)
2. The second will be a booklet / leaflet of ideas, tips and suggestions for supporting a
friend with an eating disorder. This booklet will be supplemented with further
information available online under the srsh.co.uk/for-friends section of the website.
www.srsh.co.uk
Talking Changes Lives
We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, The Welton Foundation, UnLtd and Student Hubs
SRSH is a charitable company (limited by guarantee) registered with Companies house, no. 7493445 and the
Charities Commission, no. 1142783
Making this campaign interactive:
For lots of ideas for what you could do on Campus during EDAW, check out the events that our
volunteers ran last year - www.srsh.co.uk/awareness-week-2012 and for a full breakdown of two of
the campaigns, visit - www.srsh.co.uk/a-snapshot
Rachel Egan, SRSH Press Officer, has some more ideas for you to make the Something Worth Talking
About Campaign Interactive
A Fact from Fiction Stall in the Students Union
At this stall you are going to have some statements about Eating Disorders; some of them will be
true, some will be false. The idea here is to encourage people to separate Fact from Fiction. You can
make this into a competition by imposing a time limit – i.e. 1 minute – and keeping a leadership
board, showing, throughout the day, who has been the fastest.
To do this you will need:
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Some cheap coloured card
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Some nice pens – marker pens would be ideal
To set up:
1. Draw out speech bubbles on your card & cut these out
2. Write a fact or fiction statement on one side of each card. Write Fact / Fiction (depending on
whether the statement is true or false) on the back of each card – this will help YOU sort fact
from fiction quickly at the stall. You might want to include the following statements:
Fact
Fiction
Anorexia is the least
common eating
disorder
All people with Eating Disorders think that they are fat.
It can be very hard
for someone with an
eating disorder to
let friends know that
they have a
problem.
It helps to talk about how much / little someone with an eating disorder has
eaten.
(Talk about thoughts and feelings, rather than behaviours - Many people
consider an eating disorders to be a solution to a problem rather than the
problem itself. It is often helpful to talk about the bigger picture of what is
going on in your friend’s life rather than the ins and outs of eating.)
For more suggestions on talking about eating disorders, visit
www.srsh.co.uk/dos-and-donts
Physical appearance
is not a good
indicator of whether
or not someone has
an eating disorder.
Asking “Why don’t you just eat” will probably get you a sensible answer.
You should keep
Individuals with eating disorders have a good understanding of why they find
(Don't say things like ‘why don’t you just eat?’ This will only make your friend
feel like you don’t understand how they are feeling, making them feel more
isolated. )
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Talking Changes Lives
trying to include
someone with an
eating disorder in
everyday social
events, even if they
keep saying “No.”
food difficult.
It helps to focus on
positive plans for
the future.
It helps to talk about the eating disorder a lot.
Individuals with
eating disorder
often say that they
find it hard to
explain why they
feel bad / low /
depressed /anxious.
Recovery is easy with a friend’s support.
Over 1.1 million
people in the UK are
currently affected by
eating disorders.
People with eating disorders usually find it helpful to have someone watch
them prepare food.
(Don’t be put off when there are no answers. At times it can be really hard to
find words for what you are feeling, sometimes it feels like there were no
words and yet people keep asking ‘what was wrong?’ It can be hard to
answer such a question. )
(Don’t give the Eating Disorder too much attention. Your friend and the
eating disorder are separable. The eating disorder will thrive off attention.
Don’t ignore your friend, but try not to give the disorder too much
attention. )
(The support of friends really helps, but recovery is difficult and can be a long
process – as a friend, you shouldn’t see the success of someone’s recovery as
your responsibility, this would be an exhausting responsibility. As a friend,
the best you can do is to cheer your friend along as they fight the eating
disorder.)
(It is rude to stare. Where possible avoid paying too much attention to what
your friend is eating. No one likes to be watched and we certainly don’t like
to be judged. Change will happen over time – it is not effective to argue or
raise issue with everything your housemate eats or does not eat.
For more suggestions on managing mealtimes, visit www.srsh.co.uk/mealtimes)
Anorexia can make
people feel
emotionally numb,
You should always praise someone with an eating disorder for eating a
normal, balanced meal.
Bulimia is
sometimes
considered a way of
getting rid of excess
emotions.
One fifth of women feel the most negative part of being a female is the
pressure to look attractive.
People with eating
disorders often find
life messy,
inconsistent,
frightening and
erratic.
A quarter of adults are ashamed of the way they look.
People find their
eating disorder
helps them feel that
they can cope with
life’s problems.
Few university students attending health services have mental health
problems.
(see above – you don’t want to give the eating disorder too much attention)
(Actually, 42% of girls and young women feel the most negative part of being
female is the pressure to look good)
(actually, over half of the UK adult population is ashamed of the way they
look)
(Actually, a survey conducted about 10 years ago found that over half of
students at a health service met the criteria for experiencing mental health
problems. And that was 10 years ago – most experts think that the
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Talking Changes Lives
prevalence of mental health problems has increased since then.)
Around half of
students regularly
feel too stressed to
manage University
life.
Students aren’t keen to learn more about mental health.
(In a survey conducted by SRSH, 85% of students said that they’d be
interested in taking part in a project to increase their confidence in talking
about mental health.)
Running the stall:
1) On the day ask people to sort through as many fact from fictions as they can in a minute.
2) HAVE A LEADERSHIP BOARD THROUGHOUT THE DAY TO MAKE IT EXCITING.
3) Take their email addresses and the fastest 3 win a prize. **
a. This can be an added extra to your campaign if you think you have some time to find
prizes. Simply asking in your local shops may score you some great prizes. Explain to
the shop that you are running a competition to raise awareness of eating disorders
at your university and promote healthy body image among students.
b. Take a poster or your SRSH business cards with you, to prove that you are for real!
Showing people where support services are.
Did you know that most university students have no idea what support is available on campus for
students with mental health problems? You can fix this!
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Get artsy and design a map of all your local and university mental health service;
Hand draw it making it friendly by also putting in all the favourite student nightclubs/pubs
etc..it doesn’t have to be geographically accurate and can just be square boxes with funny
faces and labels like ‘The Woodville’ pub and ‘University Counselling Centre.
On the day ask students to place a pin where they think they could go if
o a) they had an eating disorder
o b) they wanted to get help for a friend.
Remember things like doctors’ surgeries, advice units, personal tutors’ office etc.
www.srsh.co.uk
Talking Changes Lives