Eating disorders leave many college women hungering for perfect bodies

Editor's Note: This article is the second in a three-part series about eating disorders to mark National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This article focuses on a lecture about eating disorders yesterday.

Rampant thoughts of being overweight fill their heads. What they see in the mirror or on the scale may not reflect their actual physical appearance. Before long, an eating disorder may develop -- a problem that affects the entire female population.

More than 20 percent of college women are diagnosed with an eating disorder. With about 17,100 female students at the University, the number of women with an eating disorder, based on the national average, is about 3,420, said Melissa Martilotta, director of the Nutrition Clinic and clinical nutritional instructor.

"It's an epidemic," Martilotta said. "If 3,400 women had the flu, what would happen to the University. What would (University President) Graham Spanier do?"

However, diagnosing an individual with an eating disorder, the most common being anorexia and bulimia, may be problematic, Martilotta said. Individuals have to meet specific diagnostic criteria.

To be diagnosed with anorexia, an individual must meet four criteria -- refusal to maintain normal body weight which often resorts in starvation or purging, intense fear of gaining weight and becoming obese, disturbance in body image and absence of three consecutive menstrual cycles.

To confront an eating disorder an individual must tackle the problem both medically, psychologically and nutritionally.

The individual must acknowledge her behavior is self-destructive, have realistic expectations from counseling and realize that timing is critical in order for nutrition counseling of disordered eating to be successful, Martilotta said. Clients must also be involved in psychological therapy.

Through the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, confidential, psychological services -- individual and group counseling -- are available to all full- time students.

"The individual has to want help," said Joann Sorento-Gearhart, pre-doctoral intern in psychology. "It's hard to watch a friend self-destruct, but going in full force is not going to help."

Friends need to be a nonjudgmental support system, offer help and try to be uncritical and straightforward, Sorento-Gearhart said. But CAPS recommends that the individual with the problem call to make an appointment and a commitment to helping themselves.

Melissa Kline (senior-psychology) said the lecture was very informative and clear.

"It's a concern of mine that the prevalence is so high on college campuses," Kline said.