How to Seek Treatment for an Eating Disorder in College

For a young adult, college can be an exciting and scary transition into preparing for a career and taking care of oneself. Many college students feel pressured to look good - to be physically fit, trendy, well put together. There are a variety of reasons why young adults feel this pressure, from a focus on popular media and entertainment to the desire to attract a mate. All of the newness and pressures to succeed can take a toll on many aspects of a college student's life, including his/her body image.

There are several factors that contribute to a person's body image and self-esteem. I outlined some of the common reasons for negative body images below.

Some students feel inadequate or uncomfortable in a new environment, especially those who are not overly independent, get homesick easily, or are total perfectionists.

If a particular student spent the last several years training and competing in athletic events, and now at college, is only participating in beer guzzling and keg stands, the person is likely to notice changes in body and health, possibly wanting to find an easy solution to the problem.

College tends to be a time where people look to attract a mate, likely resulting in a greater attention to body image.

A point to keep in mind is that eating disorders do not just affect young women, but also men and older adults. A non-traditional college student just coming in after already successfully raising a family may also feel the pressure to feel or look younger again. Also, while an eating disorder is most commonly associated with body image, there are other causes as well, such as depression or the need to control some particular aspect in your life. No matter who is struggling with an eating disorder or why, it should not be joked about or taken lightly.

There are many types of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and related problems with over exercising, cleansing diets, and diet pills.

Whatever the cause, eating disorders are serious business. There are many adverse health risks associated with eating disorders, but I will only name a few. Prolonged lack of eating anything nutritious and healthy (which an anorexic person likely experiences) or purging after meals (bulimia) can impact a woman's menstrual cycle. It can get bad enough to shut the process down, rendering a woman unable to bear children. Binging on greasy, fattening foods instead of eating healthily adds no nutritional value to the body, raises cholesterol, risks for heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. Prolonged purging can cause serious damage to the enamel coating the teeth and can weaken the esophagus.

As college students may try to impress their peers or convince their parents that they are doing great and can handle all the stresses and changes, it may not be effective for some people to seek support from family and friends. Some people will seek out professional help to work with someone who has no emotional ties or judgment about them as a patient. Professionals will create treatment plans and will keep the patient's health information private (notable exception if the patient threatens to do major harm to himself/herself).

Professional treatment options may include counseling, group therapy, psychological analysis, family interventions, diet/exercise logs and monitoring, etc.

From my standpoint, professional help is always strongly recommended. Take it from me, a person who went about trying to solve eating and body image problems entirely the wrong way. Get professional help. Again, with no emotional attachments, a professional nutritionist, psychologist, doctor, or other medical professional will help each patient get to the root of the problem and create a plan for recovery. Most colleges have a medical facility. Insurance should cover a majority of the health costs associated with the treatment of eating disorders.

Another option on campus is to call the local hotlines. Most universities provide one or many hotline services for people to call in and talk about a variety of personal problems and traumas, such as rape, depression, or eating disorders. The hotlines will be free and the caller will likely have the option to remain completely anonymous while seeking out advice. Sometimes, a friendly listener provides that push into recovery that a suffering person needs.

An additional source of disease and treatment information is the Internet. It is easy to conduct online research, participate in support groups, forums, or chat groups. Young people rely on technology anyway, so this is a great way to find out more information and to potentially connect with others who are going through the same thing.

Friends and family may be another source people seek out to push them into treatment. However, if you know someone who is suffering from an eating disorder and doesn't share this problem with you until much later on, don't feel offended or left out. Sometimes, it is most painful to admit a weakness, problem, or addiction to those who are closest to you.

If you do suspect anyone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, DO confront them before you ever seek out professional help for them. Even though the person may resent you for getting involved, it is much better to have this strain than to for the person to feel completely betrayed when you put him/her into treatment without first discussing it with him/her. That being said, I'm not recommending that you just let it go if the person says s/he doesn't have a problem.

Also, when you attempt to support someone with an eating disorder, don't focus on your own thoughts by saying things like, "You're not even fat" or "I think this whole thing is stupid." People with eating disorders have distorted body images and unrealistic sets of expectations about their appearance. So while it may seem ridiculous to you, it isn't all that supportive to focus on those kind of statements.

If you are recovering from an eating disorder, focus on being healthy, maintaining a healthy body weight and image of yourself, and offer encouragement to others when they struggle with the same problems.

As an end point, this topic is both difficult and essential for me to write about as someone who battled an eating disorder off and on for 8 years. I had always been athletic, and as a gymnast, I had a very strong physique. When I neared high school, I started to feel like that made me unfeminine or unattractive (it wouldn't be until much later that I learned how attractive a toned, healthy woman actually looks to many people). When I started high school, I stopped eating a normal, healthy amount of food. That didn't last long before I moved on to throwing up after every meal. I was not a typical bulimic - I didn't binge on large amounts of food before vomiting - I actually would eat a healthy meal, yet purge anyway.

When I got to college, I was no longer competing in sports, dancing, doing gymnastics, etc. I enjoyed the college lifestyle until my sophomore year, when I started to notice weight gain and a general feeling of lethargy. Immediately, I started over exercising and eating way too little. At some point, that led to vomiting again.

By the time I was a senior in college, I was alternating from exercising too much, eating too little, vomiting after meals, and taking diet pills.

I was lucky enough to have people around me who noticed when I started spiraling out of control every time it happened from high school throughout college. I was still stupid, though. Instead of noticing all of the problems and warning signs, I kept exercising too much and taking diet, water, and fiber pills. My body basically shut down at one point, or rather, felt like it was going through a stroke or a small heart attack. Fortunately, that was the last straw, even for me.

It has now been three years since I had any eating or exercising problems. I finally see life with a new set of eyes (and ones that actually see myself more accurately). I realize that no matter what, it is more important to be healthy than to fit some stereotype of what is beautiful. Fortunately for me, since my problem occurred off and on, not consistently, I seem to have no lasting damage to my body or spirit. I share this story because most people view me as being pretty strong, independent, positive, and happy. All of these things are true, but that certainly does not make me (or anyone else) Wonder Woman or Superman. We all have our problems; I just hope we can all solve them.