Many people believe that a person has to look like they have an eating disorder to actually have one but this is not true, according to the Active Minds Speak Your Mind Panel.

In honor of Eating Disorder Awareness week, every member of the panel in the Marano Campus Center on Feb. 24 talked about their own experience with eating disorders and how they overcame the obstacles that were thrown their way.

According to the panel, an eating disorder includes extreme emotions, attitudes and behaviors that surround weight and food issues. The three main types of eating disorders are bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Eating disorders are the highest cause of death among adolescents. The panel aimed to help more people recognize that eating disorders are an actual disease and to dispel common stereotypes.

“It’s also important to remember that every single body and every single size deserves to be respected and healthy,” said one of the panelists, Sarah Armstrong.

The first panelist to speak about her experience was Daegan Keyes, a senior at Oswego State. Keyes spoke about her experience dealing with anorexia nervosa. When Keyes was a junior in college she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. In the spring of 2015, Keys went to a recovery center in Denver. Keys learned a lot about herself while she was in the recovery center. She learned how to deal with her emotions and to control her eating disorder.

“The most important thing I learned while I was at Denver was that we aren’t victims,” Keyes said. “And it’s important to not see us as victims; instead see us as survivors.”

Keyes now runs her own Facebook page on the topic, “Fight the Myth, Fight the Stigma.”

Rebecca Brennan spoke about how she deals with her eating disorder every day even now that she is a mental health counselor at Counseling and Healing Arts of Oswego County. Brennan is an alumna of Oswego State and this was her fourth time being a part of the Active Minds panel.

“Recovery is possible,” Brennan said. “But it’s always there, you never stop recovering.”

Brennan has dealt with an eating disorder her whole adolescent life and into adulthood. She said she always felt she was different from everyone else, being larger than other kids her age. Brennan said kids always let others know when they’re different and this was something she struggled with since she was 8 years old.

When Brennan was a teenager she started thinking that she wanted to get skinnier. She started out just eating healthier like any other person that wants to live a healthier lifestyle. Later, she started seeing how long she could get by without eating food. At that point she didn’t realize she had an eating disorder. Even when her doctor diagnosed her with anorexia nervosa, she still didn’t believe that she had a disorder.

Brennan went to a counselor but it didn’t really help her. She said she did not have the attitude of wanting to get better until later in life.

“If you don’t want to get better, you won’t,” Brennan said. “You have to want to get better.”

It wasn’t until Brennan’s life was at risk that she finally realized that she needed help.

“Maintaining a positive body image is an on-going battle,” Armstrong said. “Some days are harder than others. On those days it’s imperative to remember the decisions about weight shouldn’t be made between you and a mirror, they should be made between you and a doctor.”