College is a Dangerous Time for Eating Disorders

College is an extremely dangerous time for the outbreak of eating disorders. The transition from high school to college is stressful and more often than not leads to bad eating habits. The transition from dependence to independence is a huge step. With independence comes a new found freedom full of opportunities, but it also comes with a down fall. College is a whole new world and environment. College students go through a range of emotions from homesickness, peer pressure, responsibility, time management, and trying to juggle an academic and a social life. Bad eating habits or eating disorders serve as a coping mechanism for dealing with stress, overwhelming emotions, or alarming events. So it is not shocking that eating disorders develop during college years. While many people think that eating disorders are just problems with food, exercise, and weight issues, it is much more than that. Eating disorders more often than not show complicated psychological issues, such as: depression, low self-esteem and poor body image, and separation from loved ones. Throughout all the chaos in college, eating is one thing that a student can solely be in charge of. As stated in is there a Perfectonist in all of us? “We propose that individuals’ ways of coping and regulating emotions in the day are more likely to account for the dynamics of daily perfectionism…perfectionism on restriction could be understood as a compensatory and derivative attempt to restore feelings of control”. (Boone et al) Managing ones eating behavior when everything is out of control and out of place in their life can give students a sense of power and control.

In all the freedom and choices a college student can face, food is a major one. The campus cafeteria selection...

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...dolized “We turn skeletons into goddesses and look to them as if they might teach us how not to need.” (Hornbacher)

In college not only do students have the heavy burden of sustaining their academic endeavors they also face social standards. During college, students assemble into many social circles such as: sports, organizations, and sororities and fraternities. For some students this is the norm but for others it could create an eating disorder by increasing the importance of physical looks. Because they are not used to the rigorous amount of judging and acts of superficialness. A study examining the effects of peer pressure on identification with weight researchers noted that “concerns about their own weight, about how they appear to others and their perceptions that their peers want them to be thin are significantly related to weight-control behavior”. (Squires)