“I never realized how unhappy I was,” Heather Barth said. “I had to be okay with who I am.”

Barth fought anorexia for three years while in high school. She described her fight as not “you versus your eating disorder,” but more as a split personality.

Getting inside the mind of an eating disorder isn’t as simple as asking a few questions and understanding what an eating disorder is. Eating disorders have little to do with actual food, but more with mind and emotions.

The Committee for Eating Disorder Awareness (CEDA), along with the UW Counseling Center and Students for Equal Health, organized a two-day interactive exhibit entitled Inside the Mind of an Eating Disorder, that took place March 2 and 3. To promote the exhibit, CEDA used ASUW’s Everybody, Every Body Fashion Show and the close proximity of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

The exhibit was made up of five rooms focusing on various eating disorders and their pressures: bulimia, binge eating, anorexia, athletic pressures and the media. In each room was a mirror, distorting the picture viewers had of their own body. In each room was also a poster that read,

“ … you are not alone.”

“It’s important to know that if you are suffering from an eating disorder that you’re not alone,” said Sara Reed, a former CEDA president. “Not everyone suffers necessarily from an eating disorder but they do have some sort of distorted body image, eating habits or exercise fanatic.”

Televisions showed documentaries on eating disorders, along with prerecorded personal testimonies. The final room offered resources, such as informational pamphlets and contact information, to those in need. There was also a wall offering “affirmations for disordered eaters.”

The rooms “inside the minds” of bulimia, anorexia and athletic pressures gave personal accounts of people who died due to an eating disorder. The poetry and life story of Andrea Lynn Smeltzer, a former student at Pitzer College, was shown in one room. Smeltzer died at the age of 19, after fighting bulimia for one year.

Her mother, Doris Smeltzer, created the organization Andrea’s Voice to help raise awareness of fatalities that result from eating disorders. The organization helps put on healthy eating and body image seminars for those with eating and body image issues or recovering disordered eaters.

“An eating disorder has so many more effects than just making you thin,” Reed said.

According to the exhibit, eating disorders kill more people each year than any other mental disorder.

Barth, the president of CEDA, began conceptualizing the exhibit at the beginning of the academic year, with concrete plans starting in the beginning of winter quarter.

“I threw myself into it,” Barth said.

Last year, CEDA hosted a showing of Thin, a documentary film about eating disorders. The movie drew a crowd of about 30 people, larger than the club had expected. Barth wanted to reach more people this year and was able to achieve her goal.

Not only did the committee plan a larger event, but the club has grown from its previous high of three active members.

“For the first time ever, I think we have more than 10 members,” Barth said.

CEDA adviser Sean Ferris said the committee was dedicated to a multi-sensory experience; the exhibit called upon sight and sound for attendees to fully allow themselves to delve into the mindset behind an eating disorder. Ferris helped CEDA get the permits and navigate the university system.

Ferris said that eating disorders are presented in various ways and are easily overlooked.

“I know several people that have distorted [body] images and they do not believe that they have some signs of an eating disorder,” Reed said.

Although it may not be an eating disorder, people may suffer from “distorted eating,” which is abnormal eating habits or excessive exercise that keeps the body from getting enough nutrients.

The mission of CEDA is to spread awareness and thus more help for those fighting eating disorders.

“We live in a culture today that is so driven by media,” Ferris said. “This is something that challenges that.”

A sign in the exhibit said that 85 percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies, but that models in the media account for less than five percent of the world’s body shapes. According to the sign, popular culture portrays an image that “thin equals beauty, success, popularity, control.”

Eating disorders affect between 5 and 10 million men and women.

“There’s a lot more to eating disorders than food,” Barth said. “It’s an issue about perfection.”

Through counseling, Barth was able to overcome her struggle with body image, taking away a greater sense of the need to help with problems and issues similar to her own.

“You can talk about cooking and you can talk about liking food, but you can’t talk about your issues with food,” Barth said.

Eating disorders are almost “taboo” in today’s society, said Barth and Ferris, despite the fact that four in 10 people know or have known someone with an eating disorder.

“Understanding what causes an eating disorder is so much more than image,” Ferris said.

CEDA hopes to bring the issue to the forefront, to get people talking about eating disorders and let people know there is help available. Reed wants to try and make eating disorders an issue that is acceptable to talk about in public so those who are suffering from them can get the necessary help.

“[I want to] let people know there’s a way to get better,” Barth said.

Reach reporter Ella Williams at features@dailyuw.com.