Fifty-eight percent of college-aged women feel pressure to be a certain weight and practice disordered eating in order to achieve a perfect body size according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associate Disorders.
Moorpark College’s Website states that out of 15,000 students, fifty-five percent are women. This means that out of 8,250 female students on the Moorpark campus, an estimated 2,062 engage in disordered eating.
Media is said to be a driving factor in the realm of eating disorders, according to Dr. Anne E. Becker at Harvard University. Taylor Devian, a 19-year-old Moorpark student says “Take out the diet advertising around campus. If I could rip it down, I would.”
Becker conducted a study in Fiji and discovered that three years after television was introduced into their culture, the percentage of adolescent girls who engaged in eating disorder behaviors rose from zero to eleven percent.
Devian craves support in the form of a support group and a registered dietitian on campus.
While Moorpark College does offer free nutritional counseling, medical professionals and health insurance companies only recognize registered dietitians as qualified figures in the field. Anyone can hold the title of nutritionist; to be a registered dietitian one must have a degree.
Sharon Manakas, RN and Coordinator of Student Health services on campus says “two and a half percent of Moorpark students surveyed in a Spring 2010 poll admitted feeling academically impacted on due to an eating disorder.”
The poll did not measure how many students on campus struggle with an eating disorder, only if there are students who experience academic challenges due to an eating disorder.
Recovery from an eating disorder takes four to seven years, according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), the medical manual that mandates the standard criteria for the classification of eating disorders.
Given those statistics, any student who battles disordered eating, whether or not previously treated, will need on-going support.
Moorpark College currently has no on-going eating disorder support on campus, although they do have posters for alcoholism and drug addiction.
“I really would like to see support on campus,” said Devian, “It would be amazing.”
Manakas is coordinating the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) visit to the campus the week of February the 26th for the annual NEDAwareness Week. The goal is to create on-going support for students.
For assistance with an eating disorder, visit the Student Health Center or call the NEDA Information & Referral Helpline at 1-800-931-2237.
