Why Are Eating Disorders So Prevalent on College Campuses?

For many teenagers, going away to college represents a new phase of freedom and independence. Maybe you’re reading this and you’ve just begun your first semester of college. You’re able to make decisions for yourself, you get to determine how you spend your time, and you don’t have to consult with someone else before going to an event or hanging out with a friend. At the same time, you also don’t always have your support system immediately available—especially in the early days of your college experience. Your friends and family may be in another town, or even another state. The ways that you usually made yourself feel better or the things that you typically turned to for comfort may or may not be around. It’s at this time that it can be so easy to turn to something like an eating disorder to cope with stress and difficult emotions.

First off, in college you are surrounded by your peers almost all of the time. This can be wonderful in so many ways—your opportunities for connection and community have never been more accessible. However, if you’re someone who already struggles with comparison and self-consciousness, this can get dialed up to the extreme in a college environment. Restriction, over-exercising, and even purging behaviors can seem like enticing methods of keeping up with the unrealistic standards that are set through your peers’ social media profiles. Physical appearance and body image are just parts of the whole picture—engaging in eating disorder behaviors may feel like the only way to keep up academically, socially, and mentally as well.

Next up, just like college can be full of excitement and new opportunities, it can also be full of pressure and stress. You are responsible for attending class, completing assignments, and juggling social engagements, and for the most part no one is going to check up on you to make sure that you’re doing what you need to do. It is incredibly easy to let things pile up, and when that happens it can feel like there is no other choice but to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. If you have difficulty regulating your emotions when dealing with significant stress, engaging in eating disorder behaviors can feel comforting or reassuring, even if you are being harmed in the process.

Finally, because of the newfound freedom and autonomy that comes with being a college student, it is on you to determine what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. What you might label as “forgetting to eat lunch” or “not having time for breakfast” can very easily snowball into consistent restriction or food avoidance. Similarly, in the absence of other coping skills and emotion regulation strategies, it can be easy to isolate yourself and engage in binge eating as a means for comfort. Even outside of food, free and unlimited access to a university gym can mean exercising in a way that is compulsive or compensatory if you are already predisposed to this sort of behavior. Whatever its form, the freedom and decreased accountability of the college environment can open the door to self-destructive behavior.

If you are a college student currently dealing with disordered eating, please know that you are not alone. Though college can be full of formative experiences, close relationships, and personal growth, it is not always easy. There isn’t something wrong with you just because you find yourself struggling to keep up or manage responsibilities and expectations—you might just need some extra help or a space to figure things out. I highly encourage you to reach out to a therapist in your area who works with eating disorders. You can begin by contacting your university’s counseling center, as they might have someone on their staff who can help you, and if not, they can provide you with a list of therapists nearby who can.