Developing an eating disorder in college

LegacyUser

im starting my fourth week in college on monday and im i think im getting a bit of an eating disorder.

so far, as far as i can tell, im after going from 8 and a half stone to about 8 in the last 3 weeks.

ive always been an under eater but now i think is getting a bit out of hand.

i dont seem to eat breakfast in college now, i just feel so much better on an empty stomach, i just feel sorta nasious if i eat when i get up. so i skip altogheter.

sometimes this means i dont end up eating till maybe 3 in the day (my timetable means i start late enough and finish late enough in the day) and normally its only a sandwich cup of tea and afew biscuits.

another thing is i dont like is my campus accomodation. i hate being in my house. im a fairly friendly person and my house mates are extreamly boring. if i got back to my house most lighty its going to be empty or the others will be in their rooms. its an effort to even converse with them. so i tend to spend a lot of time in my friends houses where thers lots of people i know and stuff going on but at the sacrafice of a meal.

just yesterday the first meal i had was about 1 or 2 in the day. i went with my friends to buy a salad roll in the shop. i wasnt even able to finish it! which was always unusual if i had eatin beforehand but this was on an empty stomach.

i think the college way of drinking is bringing me down also. if i dont prepare properly for a night of drinking i will be fairly hungover after as much as 2 cans. wheres normally id drink 4 or 5 and i eat even less the next day. i cant eat at all before i go out, or il end up throwing up before i start drinking. i duno why? i think is just a mental think i have going on.. but on the other hand i want to drink because i hate not having a drink in my hand when im out and i have much more fun with everyone if im tipsy, whers normally im shy enough around people i dont know.


anyway.. any help or advice? thanks

LegacyUser

Hi there, I have lost three quarters of a stone in the last month too because I'm trying to adjust to a new situation (not college, but comparable). I think the myth of the 'freshman thirteen' can work both ways - some people put on about a stone and some people lose it! Try to look after yourself OP ... (FAO mods, I'm not trying to make a medical diagnosis or anything) It sounds like you are a bit anxious about the social side of college life. Eat breakfast and have some alone time to go for walks etc. so you are not overwhelmed by your new lifestyle. You really should be eating regular meals from now on when you are at college if you want to do well. Best wishes.

Kevster

Hey,

Maybe this could be due to your low mood, as opposed to being actually down to an eating disorder. A recognised symptom of depression / low mood is over- or under-eating (i.e. both can occur in different people).

The college lifestyle can be abhorrent - I agree - but you ought to be rigid and authoritative in how you approach the management of your life. You don't have to let others' schedules get you down - just do what you feel like and be happy that you've got control over your own life. By the way, you are in no way the first to say that they don't feel too great after breakfast. I don't either, but I just eat some fruit instead.

Not sure if this helps. Hopefully others will have advice.

Kevin

beks101

Hi OP, I think it's important that you figure whether or not there are emotional reasons motivating your under-eating.

Are you preoccupied with your weight? Are you secretly happy with the weight loss and striving to lose more? Are you lacking in self esteem and are you prone to emotional eating at all, or is eating usually just a function for you? Are you becoming obsessed with your weight? How is your body image in general? Does avoiding food give you a sense of control?

These are all important questions because it's vital that you figure out whether the under-eating is just a poor habit you've fallen into at college - which wouldn't be that rare, eating habits can slide for new college students who have just moved out of home - or whether the problem is more than just a physical one.

If it's the former, I would suggest you monitor your intake and make a concerted effort to fit in three meals every day. Your stomach size may have shrunk in the past few weeks from your under-eating so it will take a regular intake of meals and careful monitoring to increase its capacity again, so you can get the nutrition you need. It would mean forcing yourself to eat in the AM, even if it's just something small. A trip to a dietician would be a good idea to help you to create a healthy eating schedule.

If you think it's the latter, and there's something more serious going on, I would advise a trip to the campus GP as soon as possible and also a trip to the college counselling service. As far as I remember they are both free. And if this is the case, you are lucky in that you're catching it at a relatively early stage because it will be easier to overcome - but seeking help now is VITAL, don't leave it any longer.

In either case I would also advise keeping a food diary every day so you have a log of your daily intake. This will help you in identifying how your food habits need to improve and it will be a good reference point to show the doc too.

Best of luck. This is entirely fixable, just please take that first step RIGHT NOW.

Handsome Bob

It doesn't sound like it's just the stress of Uni as the OP indicated that she was always a bit of an under eater. But clearly it is something that is only exasperating the weight loss. So perhaps you should think about dropping out OP and get yourself to a professional. You'll never be able to fully give yourself to anything, be it Uni or work or your personal life, as long as this issue is hanging over you.

I know telling you to drop out doesn't seem like the best of advice but it may be a necessary short term sacrifice in order to ensure your long term happiness and health.

AvaKinder

Have you thought about contacting BodyWhys? They are the national organisation of eating disorders, they run a helpline and they also do online support groups so they may help.

beks101

beks101 wrote: »

Hi OP, I think it's important that you figure whether or not there are emotional reasons motivating your under-eating.

Are you preoccupied with your weight? Are you secretly happy with the weight loss and striving to lose more? Are you lacking in self esteem and are you prone to emotional eating at all, or is eating usually just a function for you? Are you becoming obsessed with your weight? How is your body image in general? Does avoiding food give you a sense of control?

Good post Beks! I have the same egeneral eating pattern as you, OP, and have had since I was about 16. I've always been underweight or as now, just on the skinny side. But this is not an eating disorder! Eating disorders are complex psychological disorders, Beks has outlined some of the indicators. I have spent most of my life trying to convince everyone that I wasn't anorexic, I simply had a difficult relationship with food.

That said, this eating pattern is not healthy and taking steps to combat it will improve your general health and mood too, which I found when I started to eat lunch as well as my evening meal. I don't think I'll ever be a breakfast person, because like you I just feel ill if I try to eat when I wake up. I used to buy Nutri Grain bars, or Rice Crispie bars - pretty expensive as apposed to toast or cereal, but I found if I carried them with me, by the time I'd left the house and was on my way to college I'd have woken up properly and started to get hungry, and they filled the gap till breaktime/lunchtime.

LegacyUser

beks101 wrote: »

Hi OP, I think it's important that you figure whether or not there are emotional reasons motivating your under-eating.

Are you preoccupied with your weight? Are you secretly happy with the weight loss and striving to lose more? Are you lacking in self esteem and are you prone to emotional eating at all, or is eating usually just a function for you? Are you becoming obsessed with your weight? How is your body image in general? Does avoiding food give you a sense of control?

thanks for the advice and all the replies

i think i am preoccupied with my weight, i hate looking in the mirror because i look so boney. i would never go to a swimming pool for example because i hate the way i look. i think i'm definitely lacking in self esteem. im not obsessed with my weight i just dont like it. i i think my body image is terrible. i have to admit i hate the way i look.

i think emotional issues is a real part of the problem now that you mention it. i dont like college as much as i had hoped. dont like my flatmates, feel i like im missing out if i leave my friends house and go to my own. and i hate being apart from "the gang" which i will be if i go to my own house.

i fancy the ass off one of my close friends but i know 100% fact she has no attraction towards me (trust me on that). its a situation where you like someone you cant have. its gettin me down beacuse when i like somebody i tend to 'really' like them, and only them. and this can go on for months. as long as shes around i wont feel attracted to anyone else and theres no way il ever get with her. at least not in the short term and i more or less see her all day every day. but thats a thread for another day.

theres probably other issues too but they dont really come to mind at the minute.. if they do il try and sort them out too anyway

neuro-praxis

http://www.marinotherapycentre.com/

Give these guys a little ring and chat through your worries with them. They will give you compassionate, kind and helpful advice.

under eating

under eating wrote: »

i think i am preoccupied with my weight, i hate looking in the mirror because i look so boney. i would never go to a swimming pool for example because i hate the way i look. i think i'm definitely lacking in self esteem. im not obsessed with my weight i just dont like it. i i think my body image is terrible. i have to admit i hate the way i look.

Hi OP, this paragraph is very familiar! I mentioned before having had the same eating patterns (or lack of!) as you. I too hated how skinny I was and the insults that would come with it, as if I was doing it deliberately. Eating disorders are complex medical and mental disorders, no medical professional ever suggested I had one after I explained, as you have, that I just had an extremely poor relationship with food and that I really hated how skinny I was. The best thing you could do is explain this to a GP or other health care professional for their advice.

I suffered from depression for 10+ years which was the start of my poor eating habits, and continued right throughout. I've been taking medication for a few years and have got to the stage I feel I can safely say depression is behind me. My appetite is fine and healthy now, perhaps I eat too much to be honest, but my weight is finally now at a nice level and I'm more than happy with that. I'll cut back on the snacks if it starts to go over the ideal level though

Depression and stress seem to work one of either way on individuals, they either overeat for comfort, or lose their appetite and stop eating. I'm one of the latter, guessing you are too!