IU Health Center to host ‘Celebrate Your Body Day’ throughout campus

IU’s Counseling and Psychological Services want you to like you for who you are.\nCounseling and Psychological Services is organizing “Celebrate Your Body Day,” an event during which the services’ psychologists and therapy staff members will conduct health screenings and students can take assessments to see if they have symptoms of an eating disorder. \n“Celebrate Your Body Day” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Student Recreational Sports Center, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m at Gresham Food Court at Foster Quad and the Wildermuth Fieldhouse basketball court.\nThe screenings are designed to increase awareness about the body, said Emily Calvert, one of the event’s coordinators.\nOther than the screenings, coordinators will provide information about healthy eating, eating disorders and exercising. \nThe event is for any graduate or undergraduate student and for those who know others who have body image problems or eating disorders, Calvert said. \nAlthough the rates of eating disorders and body image problems are higher among females, males are still susceptible, Calvert said. \n“We want people to be more self-accepting of their bodies,” Calvert said.\nParticipants are encouraged to come to one of the sites and write down what they like about their bodies on a postcard. These postcards will be hung up for a couple weeks.\nParticipants can sign a “peace treaty” at the event. In this treaty, participants promise their bodies that they will acknowledge their beauty, practice healthy eating habits, exercise but know when to take a break and generally accept their bodies.\nPrizes such as gift certificates to places that promote healthy living and buttons that say “I made peace with my body today!” will be given to participants.\nCounseling and Psychological Services is also sharing information about eating disorders and the event itself with greek houses, DeeDee Dayhoff, a coordinator of the event, said in an e-mail. She said some of the houses want to recreate “Celebrate Your Body Day” within their own houses.\n“It’s an issue that most college men and women struggle with,” Chris Meno, a psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services, said, referring to body image. She said many women dislike one or more parts of their bodies. Women think parts of their bodies such as their stomachs are too big or flabby. Men often don’t think they’re big enough and want more muscle. \nCalvert said 7 million girls and women suffer from eating disorders, and 91 percent of women on college campuses report dieting.\n“I think we all need to be more comfortable in the skin that we’re in,” Calvert said.\nCounseling and Psychological Services also conducts screenings throughout the year that deal with other issues, including anxiety and depression.