By Martha Lueders
Murphy News Service
Eating disorders develop to fulfill something; they’re a coping mechanism.
That’s what 30-year-old Jeanne Sause says. And she should know, having dealt for 20 years from her eating disorders
For Sause, it was to hide the lack of love she felt. The first time she went to The Emily Program it was because her Catholic therapist recommended her.
“I remember saying ‘I’m here to prove to you that I don’t have an eating disorder’ and I sat with my arms crossed with my feet on the chair,” Sause says.
That day Jillian Lampert told Sause that she did have an eating disorder. “It’s incredible how perceptive she was right away,” Sause says.
Sause finally received the help she needed from The Emily Program, an organization that was founded in 1993 in St. Paul.
“They loved me and it was like a family,” she says. “I felt significant.”
Sause is among the 14.5 million Americans who suffer from eating disorders, Lampert says.
Lampert is senior director of Business and Community Development for The Emily Program, as well as a nutritional therapist.
Minnesota has more than 200,000 people who suffer from eating disorders, The Emily Program’s records show.
“Our mission is to save lives and eliminate eating disorders,” Mary Mathiowetz, vice president of The Emily Program Foundation, says.
The Emily Program will hold its first gala called unmaskED on March 1, to observe National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. The gala’s theme represents the secrecy, stigma and shame associated with eating disorders, Mathiowetz says.
At the gala there will be silent and live auctions. Entertainment will include a performance by the Bruce A. Henry Band, Mathiowetz says. All funds that are raised at the gala will be put toward eating disorder research, but a majority will go toward more preventive actions, she says.
“We hope to change the conversation,” Mathiowetz says.
Eating disorder research has received $34 million annually since 2012 from the National Institutes of Health, the NIH website states.
The Emily Program currently helps 4,500 people, Lampert says. There are roughly 1,600 new patients who come to the program every year.
Sause says recovery from eating disorders creates a different journey for everyone who suffers from one, so The Emily Program personalizes each program to a patient’s needs.
Most of Emily staff members have either suffered from eating disorders or are close to someone who has one, Sause says.
“They could finish my sentences. I knew they got me,” Sause says.
Martha Lueders is a student at the University of Minnesota studying journalism.
More information about tickets and the gala can be found at www.emilyprogramfoundation.org.