About 40% of college and university freshmen struggle with disordered eating, with 80% being women. Its culture permeates college life, is both subtle and increasingly normalized, and is prevalent in environments where being skinny is idealized, praised, and strived for.

Tamar Spilberg, a therapist and social worker in Toronto, differentiates between eating disorders and disordered eating.

“An eating disorder is a mental health concern, whereas disordered eating is influenced more by trends and social media. Typically, individuals with disordered eating have strong self-worth, and they are not as deeply influenced by societal norms or opinion in comparison to an individual with an eating disorder.  Individuals with eating disorders often deal with issues of control and other psychological issues.”

The underlying shame around the “Freshman 15” (the extra 15 pounds new college students are often said to put on) has influenced the way students interact with each other and their eating habits. The everyday language surrounding weight and shape among students contributes to a culture in which if you’re not striving for thinness, you are considered lazy. Examples of this everyday culture of shame include mentioning how little one has eaten due to working hard, using coffee as a meal replacement, and not eating meals, in part, to make intoxication easier.

Spilberg describes how eating disorders and disordered eating manifest in the post-secondary environment.

“I believe this phenomenon is more dangerous in university because parents are not around to help students resist the new norms they experience in university. Beginning in junior high, teens and young adults are highly influenced by their peers who are in turn influenced by social media and recent fads. In university, these young adults are surrounded by their peers, they experience independence for the first time, they are under a lot of pressure for academic achievement and social success, and they are easily influenced by social norms. It creates the perfect storm.”

In this way, students may be reinforced by peers for engaging in unhealthy behaviours. Hustle culture, a modern lifestyle in which people try to fill every minute of their day with work, is a related problem. Despite the destructive effect it has on mental health, many young adults identify with hustle culture and promote overworking with little to no downtime. Much like eating disorder culture, hustle culture associates a lack of self-care with success, creating serious problems among students.

Allana Blumberg, a fitness and lifestyle micro influencer, describes her own personal experience during college years with peer influenced disordered eating:

“It is something that is very hush-hush and a lot of people are oblivious to. Disordered eating is sort of the ‘norm’ and accepted as ‘ok’ among students. It happens a lot around going out to clubs and parties, or any time there is a drinking event. It made me not want to eat proper meals before going out in fear of ‘not looking skinny enough’ or ‘consuming too many calories’ alongside the alcohol. It made me constantly body check, comparing myself to others or how I looked in high school versus college.”

Allana explains how she was able to get out from under the eating disorder culture she encountered at university:

“Sadly, it took leaving the on-campus environment and me moving back home upon transferring universities. I don’t know if I would have gotten out of that mentality and culture if I had continued to live on campus.”

– Llewellyn Boggs, Senior Contributing Writer

Image Credits:
Feature: Jennifer Burk at Unsplash, Creative Commons
First: Beyza Nur Kocaosmanoğlu at Unsplash, Creative Commons
Second: Stanley Morales at Pexels, Creative Commons