Thin may be in, but gaining or losing extreme amounts of weight is not.

One in every 10 college students has an eating disorder, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, a resource for anyone with a weight loss problem. But “ten percent may be low,” said ANAD Administrator Dawn Ries.

“Thirteen percent of the students in therapy last semester had an eating disorder,” said Kathy Hotelling, director of NIU’s Counseling and Student Development Center. The percentage is “a significant proportion of students we see.”

Rotelling said “it is estimated that 20 percent of college women have an eating disorder.”

College life introduces stressful situations that can lead to eating disorders, said Ries, a recovered anorexic. Society also plays a large role.

“College campuses have always been a place where attractiveness is prized,” according to a pamphlet by the Mental Health Clinic titled “Bulimia.”

“Sleekness is in and has been for years,” Ries said. “Society is so into one’s appearance. Instead of promoting who we are, it promotes how we look.”

Ries said diet products, health clubs and advertisements with thin women add to the “thin is in” concept.

Society is a contributing factor to “connotating happiness with “‘how I look,'” Ries said. Preoccupation with one’s appearance goes hand-in-hand with one’s foreseen success in life, she said.

A disturbing element associated with eating disorders has been seen at the NIU Family Center. “A lot of young women with eating disorders were sexually abused as children by their fathers,” said Director Anthony Heath. The abuse “is not causal but is definitely there.”

“Eating is often a way for all of us to take care of ourselves,” Heath said.

Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and compulsive overeating and are not limited to women, Ries said. Ries and Hotelling agree bulimia is more common than other eating disorders.

Anorexia and bulimia involve a deep concern with one’s appearance. Anorexics, often unlike bulimics, are noticeably thin. The differences between the two disorders lie in methods of obtaining the desired thinness.

Anorexics starve themselves, which can lead to hospitalization if not fatal results. Bulimics engage in binge eating, consuming from 5,000 to 10,000 calories in a meal and rid their bodies of food through induced vomiting or laxatives.

Many victims of weight loss disorders, like bulimia and anorexia, simply “go on an innocent diet which progresses into much more than that,” Ries said. “They get stuck in a cycle and can’t get out.”

Often, “what it’s going to do to you” is not realized until too late, Ries said. The duration and extremity of the problem determine its severity, she said.

Compulsive overeating is a result of stress, said NIU Health Services Nutritionist Annie Chen. Compulsive overeaters “use food to compensate for emotional problems and the problem is psychological.”

Compulsive overeating is the least severe of the three main eating disorders, but “all are equally serious,” Ries said.

Tuesday: How college students handle the transition from home-cooked meals to residence halls and their own cooking.