An estimated 10 percent of college students suffer from a clinical or borderline eating disorder. A recent survey at the University of Missouri-Columbia calculated bulimia rates as high as 19 percent among college-aged women. Eating disorders in young women are an entrenched element of college culture in the United States.
'It is my personal belief that the cause for the rampant prevalence and proliferation of eating disorders is the many facets of socialization,' said Emily Sturm, Outreach Coordinator at the UW-Madison Campus Women's Center. 'This includes the common sources such as media, peers and family members. It's through the strong foundation created by socialization of body image that cultural norms and beauty ideals are reproduced.'
Translation: for many students, it can often be hard to fight inconsistent norms of beauty and body, and the battlefield is always growing, augmented by the stress of academic, career and social demands. Today's body image standards may have shifted, but certainly haven't relaxed, and eating disorder sufferers are beginning to seek alternative ways to beat and treat the enemy.
Traditional treatment methods for eating disorders include therapists, psychologists, medications, group counseling and twelve-step programs and are still the most common ways to treat serious eating disorders. The following alternative methods are 'outside the box,' and often supplement the traditional methods, offering students a new way to cope, with solidarity and choice.
'The great thing about alternative options for treating an eating disorder is that they provide the individual with a greater range of choices, thus giving them increased power and autonomy in their treatment process,' Sturm said.
Meditation is considered a mode of detachment and can be useful because it gives those who suffer from food and weight preoccupations a way to accept negative thoughts without letting them completely take over.
The binge-purge cycle, for example, is often a reflexive response to unwanted thoughts and associated feelings. In this way, it's no different than many addictions, compulsions and self-defeating behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse, which are all efforts to escape negative feelings that otherwise can't seem to be released.
'Meditation can be a way of inviting people to simply 'be' with these thoughts and feelings without really 'doing' anything about them,' said Scott L. Fenton, Psy.D., who teaches free meditation classes to students through University Health Services. 'In doing this, we learn that although the feelings may not be pleasant, the feelings themselves are harmless, changeable, impermanent and separate from our core selves.'
Art therapy uses painting, sculpture, photography and other media not only as creative outlets, but also as a chance for sufferers to express their personality, interests and ideas in new ways.
College students might not normally invest time and money in courses like drawing or watercolor painting, but these activities are proven to have calming effects.
Art classes are also a way for eating disorder sufferers to socialize with other students and receive validation for their work and ideas.
Yoga proponents claim there are few activities better geared toward strengthening the connection to the body and to positive body awareness. Yoga movements emphasize strength, grace and flexibility, putting practitioners back in touch with the strengths, rather than the weaknesses, of their body. Yoga tends to focus on the mind-body connection rather than body-oriented activities alone. College women who practice yoga consistently report higher rates of body satisfaction and fewer eating problems.
'Yoga can be critical to someone suffering with an eating disorder because they are seeking to reorient themselves to their body. They are seeking to build a healthy relationship out of a damaged one,' said Penny Ballantyne, a yoga teacher at the Mound Street Yoga Center in Madison. 'Personally, I realize how yoga impacts virtually every aspect of my life, inviting awareness and offering refuge in the struggle to be fully engaged in life.'
Yoga's recent popularity has moved it front and center in the health and fitness community. The city of Madison and the UW-Madison campus offer many classes of varying types and skill levels. Some of the most popular venues in the area are the Mound Street Yoga Center (info@moundstreetyoga.com), The Yoga Room (lisa.lawrence@juno.com) and SERF Powerflow classes (www.wisc.edu).
Cooking classes help sufferers normalize eating behaviors by teaching how to cook healthy, easy-to-prepare dishes and to recognize eating as pleasurable and social.
Rafe Montello teaches a variety of classes through Whole Foods Market in Madison, including a 12-week program called 'Growth Yourself Thin,' where he teaches the fundamentals of cooking to maximize nutrition.
'Ideally everyone would eat straight out of a garden, fresh and unrefined vegan foods,' he said. 'But this is impractical if you aren't able to prepare the foods. In order to eat healthy and be healthy, you have to know how to cook.'
Montello said perfectionism and desire for control fuel eating disorders. Control over food takes over other aspects of life. However, confidence in strengths and skills in other areas of life make it that much easier to push food into the background.
'We live in a toxic American culture where food is everywhere; where food takes center stage, and then we are smashed for being overweight,' he said. 'We talk about eating like we talk about sex, like it's a sin or a guilty pleasure. If any progress towards health and enlightenment is to be made, it's up to us to challenge and change this culture.'
Experts also suggest making time for dining out with friends and family. Eating in public, eating as a part of daily socialization and maintaining regular eating patterns are all important to recovery. Nutritionist consultation also helps the sufferer learn to construct a healthy daily diet that meets all their needs.
Broadly described as 'holistic,' these therapies comprise a mixed bag that includes aromatherapy, Ayurveda medicine, natural diet, exercise, herbal remedies, homeopathy, acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, bodywork, prayerful intention, traditional Chinese medicine and energy-based therapies. While some holistic methods may be considered more legitimate or effective than others, all can be combined with traditional treatments to speed the recovery process.
