How Olympians Cope with Eating Disorders

How Olympians Cope with Eating Disorders

Former Olympians are speaking out about the mental and emotional stressors involving weight management that many pre-Olympians face and how those effects can lead to mental and emotional eating disorders in post-Olympic life. How can young athletes cope? Catherine Garceau, Olympian and Author, has found brainwave training to be an asset. 

Catherine Garceau, Bronze medalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics for the Canadian Synchronized Swimming Team, writes in her book “Swimming Out of Water”:  "When I was a synchronized swimmer for the Canadian Olympic team I knew that any coach or judge could be in the stands at any moment. A questionable action or improper appearance might be held against me in my performance later. Knowing what I know now, I believe athletes, coaches, judges and associations should take much more proactive measures to help prevent and address the high rates of eating disorders in sport and beyond. While I didn’t personally feel pressure to lose weight while I was training, getting praised for my great figure and becoming an example for other teammates surely had its own subtle impact. I remember others girls being upset and anxious about ‘weigh in’ day.” 

Aspiring young athletes and their parents are drawn to experienced coaches who have success in their sport. Both athletes and parents need to be aware that there may be occasions when the training methods utilized, even at the elite level, can appear intimidating and humiliating for young athletes. In the Los Angeles Times article "The twists and turns of Team USA" Jessica Ogilvie interviews Dominique Moceanu, the youngest member of the United States Women's Gymnastics Team that won Gold in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and author of "Off Balance". When asked if the pressure of being thin while competing at an elite level encourages eating disorders, Dominique Moceanu replies: "I do think our sport lends itself to being as light and as lean as possible, but there is a healthy way to do it. We need more education in our sport about nutrition and proper eating. For me, it was always just no bread, no pasta. They told me what you can't eat, but they didn't explain why, and when you are a small child you feel restricted."

The same method used by Olympians for a competitive edge can also be the solution for promoting emotional wellness: brainwave focus training. Sports training centers are realizing the positive effects brainwave training can generate. Most of these training centers use a variety of modalities in the field of brain based learning and plasticity, where athletes receive instruction for achieving specific brainwave states at will. The positive result? Many Gold, Silver and Bronze medals won plus the ability to access full mental clarity when facing post-Olympic life-choices.  

Light and sound machines are popular tools for personal brainwave training routines. A light and sound machine utilizes visual and audio stimulation to gently guide the listener into specific brainwave states. Each light pulse and audio beat is a specific frequency. Our minds 'think' in terms of frequency. Brainwaves change frequencies based on neural activity within the brain, be it by hearing, touch, smell, vision and/or taste. These senses respond to activity from the environment and transmits that information to the brain via electrical signals. Hearing and vision are considered favorable senses for affecting brainwaves safely. By presenting these beats and pulses to the brain, within minutes, the brain begins to mimic or follow the same frequencies as the stimuli (the beats and pulses). This process is referred to as entrainment. In essence, light and sound machines speak to the mind in it’s own language – the language of frequency.

 

Light and sound brainwave frequency machines can be the solution for minimizing emotional strain placed on young athletes while promoting the focus necessary for competing at an elite level. As Catherine Garceau says about her DAVID Delight Pro: "an easy to use tool to increase my brain's ability to shift through different brain wave states, deepen my meditation practice, gain stress reduction, increased resilience, and fuel my growing dynamic health."

    

The DAVID Delight Pro by Mind Alive includes black case; the eyesets are Tru-Vu Omniscreen white; headphones; CES stimulus cable, stereo patch cord, black carry bag, 9-volt battery, AC adapter, Quick Start Guide, Operator's manual and downloadable copy of "Mind States: An Introduction to Light and Sound Technology". Available accessories include: DAVID Session Editor, Extra User package, Multi-Color eyeset with left/right independent eye control and Tru-Vu Omniscreen eyesets with viewholes for eyes-open utilization. There are twenty-five built-in sessions plus space for user designed sessions (with session editor software). The sessions are categorized into: Energize, Meditate, Brain Brightening, Sleep, Feeling Better and User Designed. There are five sessions within each category (User Designed category has room for five personally created sessions).