Battling an eating disorder as a college student

Ask most people who exercise and diet about their habits and you'll most likely get a vague response about being slightly concerned about their weight and keeping fit. But what about the girl who's always at the gym; the friend with the "extremely small bladder" who always has to run to the bathroom once or twice during a meal; the boy whose girl friends tease him about how little he eats and how he's "even skinnier than a girl"?

There is a thin line between simply being concerned about one's weight and being obsessed with the numbers that appear on the scale. The National Eating Disorders Association estimates that approximately seven million females and one million males struggle with eating disorders. In addition, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that out of ten female college students suffer from a severe or borderline eating disorder.

The situation is no better or worse at Tufts. Created five years ago, the Task Force for Eating Disorders focuses its attention on tackling the problem of eating disorders in the community and aims to raise awareness about the problem.

The Task Force consists of faculty and staff together from the Health and Counselling services, the School of Nutrition, Residential Life, Deans' Office, Dining Services, and Athletic Office. With sources from so many different areas of the school, "there isn't just one way to access care," Director of Tufts Health Services Michelle Bowdler said.

"The whole theory behind starting this Task Force was to create relationships amongst the health service/counselling center and the other places... so that people would know how to get somebody into treatment," Bowdler explained.

How well has their approach worked? Bowdler admits that the number of cases Tufts has been treating has indeed gone up year after year. This most likely reflects a greater recognition by students that help is available at Tufts, as well as a greater willingness to seek out help.

Still, there are always those like sophomore Mandy (not her real name) who are reluctant to get help. For Mandy, going through high school with the purging type of anorexia was hard enough -- college has been an even greater challenge in maintaining the stable state of mind necessary for recovery.

"Ever since the first time I purged, my mentality has been 'oh, winter break is coming up... I'll stop then,'" Mandy said. "Winter break would come and pass. I might have been good for a few days, but by the time school started again, I would have relapsed into old habits of purging what little I did eat."

Looking back, Mandy believes that she was ready to stop these habits when she said she was. "They were all just false promises I made to justify any restricting or purging I was doing at the time. I guess it's just like a smoker saying to himself, 'just one last smoke.' But of course, it never is."

Indeed, the hardest cases to treat are "the students that aren't quite ready to be treated," Clinic Manager Kathleen O'Dea said. These people visit Health Service "only because they've been 'strongly encouraged' by their parents or family to seek treatment." Until they are ready to undergo therapy on their own, little can really be accomplished.

Friends play a crucial role in the well-being of the people they know with eating disorders. Few people with disordered eating will approach a therapist or doctor -- both complete strangers -- for help when they lack the support and understanding of friends.

"The first time, two concerned friends turned me into the dean," Mandy said. "Six months later, when I returned to admit that my problem hadn't gotten any better, I had dragged another good friend along" for emotional support.

Both Bowdler's and O'Dea stress that anyone is welcome to come talk. Bowdler's words are reassuring: "We just want people to know that what they're going through is not going to shock or surprise us, we understand what they are going through; it's not new to us... we just want care for them and help them get into treatment."