Programs created to prevent eating disorders
Women at TCU have a higher drive for thinness than women at other local universities.
Skiff Staff

Women at TCU have a higher drive for thinness than women at other local universities.
Skiff Staff

More than 90 percent of college women have been on a diet and 13.6 percent of college women will develop an eating disorder, according to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc.

The number of students at TCU dealing with an eating disorder is unknown because neither the Health Center or Campus Life keep these records on file.

Although no university statistics are available, the university has recognized that there is a problem and has established two new programs spearheaded by the Mental Health Services and Women’s Resource Center.

The Women’s Resource Center has also formed an eating disorder prevention group composed of faculty, staff, students and community members called Disordered Eating Networking Team.

Carla Garber, a licensed professional counselor, is in charge of the Mental Health Services’ group where students discuss issues dealing with eating disorders such as body image, food and the media. This new program started this semester and holds meetings from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday in Mental Health Services.

Garber said the group was started because eating disorders are an increasing epidemic on college campuses.

“To me it’s the biggest issue on campus,” Garber said. “What most women think is normal is disordered.”

Women’s quest for thinness is more extreme now than it was 20 years ago, Garber said.

In her dissertation, which she did on female body image in 1999, she found women at TCU had a larger discrepancy in what size they are and what they considered an ideal weight than women at other local universities.

Her research also found that at TCU there was more intentional weight loss and the lowest average weight body mass index, a ratio of height and weight that can be used to determine if someone is their correct weight.

“(TCU has) by far the highest scores on a factor measuring degree to which one believes one is a ‘better person’ if they deprive themselves of food,” Garber said.

Garber commonly sees a mixed disorder — the combination of two or more disorders such as under-eating and over-exercising.

“Some students exercise even more than Olympic athletes do,” Garber said. “It is a form of purging, your body is even more depleted and there are not enough calories so your body starts eating its own muscle.”

In high school, Karrie Queal, a senior speech communication major, ran cross country and was a cheerleader. Queal said she was very thin, but once she started college, she exercised less and began eating more.

When she came home after her first semester some of her friends commented on her weight gain, so she began to workout more and eat less. By her sophomore year she was continually getting comments on how good she looked. At this point she said her weight consumed her life.

“I went to school then I worked out,” Queal said. “The whole rest of my life I had always been a real big socializer, but I was putting working out over going out and socializing. (With anorexia) you put yourself in extreme isolation.”

In the spring of her sophomore year, Queal said she had to go to the hospital for a swollen leg and was referred to a leading cardiologist who told her she had an extremely low heart rate and if it didn’t improve in a month, he would have to install a pace maker.

She said she began to see a nutritionist and was hospitalized in April. Queal said she spent two months at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital and spent the rest of the summer in recovery.

“It’s something you have to completely change your life style if you want to get rid of it,” Queal said. “But recovery is possible.”

Queal said that anorexia is a very evil disorder that you can easily slip back into. She said that she sees a therapist and that you have to talk to people to get through recovery.

Marcy Paul, coordinator of Women’s Resource Center, said Queal has spoken with student groups about eating disorders. Paul said this is just one part of the new DENT program, adding that its goal is to create and implement an eating disorder prevention program.

Amy Tramm, a nutritionist, said eating disorders can lead to endema, which is a swelling of the body. She said this can have a damaging psychological effect, because they will perceive themselves as gaining weight.

Continued eating disorders can affect almost every organ in the body, including heart problems, kidney failure and infertility, Tramm said.

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