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By: Mona Farahbakhsh, Dietetic Intern
Reviewed by: Dina Skaff, Registered Dietitian, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
*Content Warning: Mention of potential triggers, phrases with numbers implying weight/weight gain.
The thought of starting college or university may seem a bit overwhelming. While simultaneously navigating eating disorder recovery, there may be a lot on your mind about what’s ahead and how to prepare. However, with support in planning for potential challenges and building tools to promote your health and wellness, starting college or university may feel more manageable. This blog post explores considerations and strategies that may be helpful when preparing for this transition.
Are You Ready for this Transition?
Before the big school transition, it is important to reflect on where you are on your path to wellness, and if you’re ready for this change. Consider how you will react to a more independent and less structured lifestyle. Things that feel natural for many people may feel difficult for you and that is okay. It can be beneficial to assess potential challenges and consider what support may be helpful. Some challenging situations you may need to navigate could include preparing your own balanced plates at meals, eating without support, or having a roommate who owns a scale. The following resource, Transition to Campus Life Assessment Checklist, may be a helpful tool when reflecting on your readiness for this transition.
Challenges on Campus
Campus life can be fun, but it can also be difficult and unpredictable. You may feel like you’re quickly leaving familiar aspects of life and rushing to adopt a more independent lifestyle. Despite entering an exciting stage of life with opportunities for growth and new experiences, you may also feel a loss of structure and a dramatic shift in routine. There can be increased pressure to excel in classes, and to “fit in” with peers, in an environment where physical appearances may seem like a major focus. This lifestyle shift can be stressful and overwhelming. For some, it can lead to a sense of loss of control. All of these factors can put individuals living with an eating disorder at increased risk of relapse.
Preparing for Postsecondary
If you’re feeling ready to head off to college or university, it can feel like a big step into independence. This does not mean that it needs to be done alone. Even if you’ve made great strides in your healing journey, it’s important to remember that you are undertaking a major transition. Receiving care and assistance from a support team during this process can be integral for its success. When preparing for a big life change, like attending college or university, there are three steps that can be helpful to follow:
Predict
Plan
Support.
1. Predict
There are many high-stress situations associated with starting school. When situations are unexpected, they can feel more difficult to handle. To better prepare for these high-stress situations, you may want to identify potential stressors with help from your support team. These will be unique to you and based off of your experiences and needs. They could include the typical high-stress situations associated with college or university like attending a busy lecture, meeting an assignment deadline or writing a midterm. However, for those living with an eating disorder, nutrition related stressors like eating in a busy dining hall, finding times for snacks and meals in between classes, or a lack of in-person meal support should also be considered.
It’s also a good idea to predict potential triggers. Triggers can lead to negative or critical thoughts, which can result in unsafe behaviour. Triggers are different for everyone. Something that others may hardly notice, could feel very triggering for you. Hearing peers talk about the “Freshman 15” could trigger some. Seeing certain foods in the dining hall, trying on new clothes or attending a lecture that discusses bodies and food could trigger others.
Identifying potential high-stress situations and triggers may feel challenging. If you’re unsure where to start, it can be helpful to ask others about their college or university experiences. You can also make a draft on your phone’s notes app to list stressful situations and triggers as they arise.
2. Plan
After predicting potential stressors and triggers, the next step is to create a plan. A plan can help reduce uncertainty and give you a greater sense of security. Plans should be tailored to your individual needs and focus on ways you want to feel supported. It could include a list of people that you could connect with for various types of support, focusing on supporting your nutrition and wellness.
Your plan could indicate your predicted stressors and list actions that you would find both helpful and unhelpful in those situations. It can be important to communicate unhelpful behaviours that may make you feel disrespected, neglected or unsupported, to help your support people provide care that is conducive to your wellness. For example, if you predict that you will experience high levels of stress when preparing a balanced plate at the cafeteria, your plan could indicate that it would feel helpful to have a support person help to create meal plans based on the cafeteria’s online menu. It could also indicate that this action would be unhelpful if it was not done consistently or by the agreed upon time. If you predict that having a roommate who owns a scale could feel triggering, your plan could include a drafted message asking your roommate to keep the scale somewhere that is not visible to you. Creating and following a plan that focuses on supporting your needs and prioritizes your nutrition, health and wellness can be a helpful tool in preventing a relapse.
3. Support
Support networks will look different from one person to the next and could include family, friends, chosen family, teachers, mentors, residence advisors, healthcare providers, supportive online communities, etc. Regardless to what your support network may look like, it can be helpful to have a plan that you discuss with your support people and care team before the transition to college or university. The plan should be followed carefully and consistently by both you and your support people.
You also play an important role with support. It’s important that you support your own needs consistently and carefully. If you neglect your own basic needs like getting enough food and sleep, it will be a lot more challenging for the plan to be followed and for the transition to feel successful. Your support people are there to help you meet your needs so, if you are struggling, reach out for assistance and care. Remember, nothing matters more than your safety, health and wellbeing.
Food is Your Medicine
Food is your medicine, and you need it to recover. It’s important that you follow your nutrition plan and meet your nutritional needs. Despite what others may be doing or their attitudes and beliefs around nutrition and health, you need to prioritize your healing and follow the guidance from your health care team. If your classmate skips lunch on a busy day or stays up all night studying without giving their body additional fuel, this doesn’t mean it’s all right for you to do the same. You are healing and need to be consistent with fueling your body. Remember, food is essential to function optimally.
As an analogy, think about a phone. A phone stores power in a battery which gets it’s energy from a charger. As a phone get used or as time passes, it’s battery starts to drain. If a phone sits unused all day, it’s battery will decrease. If the phone is being used frequently, it's battery will deplete much faster. When a phone’s battery gets too low, it’ll often go on a ‘Low Power Mode’. On this mode, you’ll likely be able to make phone calls or send a text but, the screen might be dimmed, some apps might not work, and the camera use might be restricted. The phone is still functional but, it isn’t capable of performing optimally. Many tech companies note that smart phone batteries will function better and last longer if they are regularly charged and frequently topped up before the battery reaches too low of a charge. So, whether the phone is sitting unused for the day or being used regularly, the phone should still be charged frequently.
You can use this same thinking when considering your body and nutrition. You need food for energy. If you spend all day in bed or sitting at a desk studying, your body is doing lots of work and still needs energy from food. If you have a busy day walking around campus, going to classes and doing assignments, your body needs even more energy from food. When your energy source is restricted, you’re still functional but you will not be functioning to your fullest capacity. You might feel sore, grumpy, exhausted and have a hard time concentrating. It will be hard to focus, listen and learn in classes. Just like your phone needs to be charged frequently to function optimally, you need adequate nutrition frequently to thrive.
Selecting a Supportive School
It’s worthwhile to consider the services available on campus to make sure that you can receive the support you need. When choosing a school, you may want to reflect on things like:
the health and wellness services available to students,
the distance the school is from home,
if you have friends or family attending the school, or in the same city of the school if you will be moving out of town,
the residence rooms available and
meal plan and dining hall options.
Reflect on your individual needs when deciding which factors to prioritize. As there can be a plethora of things to consider, it may be helpful to do this process gradually with assistance from your support team.
Conclusion
The transition to university or college can be a big life change leading to increased stress. As there are correlations between life changes and eating disorder relapse, it is important to ensure you are prepared, supported and nourished during this transition.
A few key points when considering this transition include:
Reflect on how you’re feeling and if you’re ready to begin this transition. Recognize where you are in your recovery and your overall health and wellness. Remember, the right time for you to begin this transition is unique and individual and should not be based on what others are doing.
If you are feeling ready, advanced planning with your support team can help identify the type of care and support you need during this transition.
Food is your medicine. Meeting your nutritional needs plays a key role in making your time in college or university successful.
When choosing a school, consider the services available to students to make sure that you can receive the support you need.
If you are looking for support to prepare for the transition to campus life:
Download the Transition to Campus Life Assessment Checklist.
Subscribe to the email list to find out about additional resources.
Book a Discovery Call to learn more about nutrition counselling and support options.
Terms in this blog post:
Support Team: A support team will look very different from person to person and can include a diverse network of individuals such as family, chosen family, friends, teachers, mentors, campus advisors, safe online communities, pets, roommates, etc. It’s important to select a support network that can offer care that feels conducive to your healing and wellbeing.
Eating disorder: Although this post uses the term ‘eating disorder’, the information shared is applicable and relevant to those who do not have an official diagnosis and those living with disordered eating. Receiving support and care is valuable to anyone who is struggling with their relationship with food and their bodies, whether they have a diagnosis or not.
References:
Conroy, C. (2003). Suddenly Semestered: Food & Weight Concerns on Campus . NEDIC. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://nedic.ca/download-file/1559579929.887003-89/
Derenne, J. (2016). Transition Issues for Patients With Eating Disorders. Psychiatric Times, 33(1). Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/transition-issues-patients-eating-disorders.
FREED, Eating Disorder Service. (n.d.). Preparing for University: A guide for Those Recovering from an Eating Disorder. FREED. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://freedfromed.co.uk/img/guides/Preparing_For_University-FREED.pdf
Kelty Mental Health Resource Center. (2016, September). Parents Survive Thrive Guide - Kelty Eating Disorders. Kelty Eating Disorders. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://keltyeatingdisorders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BCMH026_EatingDisorder_FullGuide_v6-Web.pdf
Morris, J., & Nahman, C. (2020). Chapter 12 - Transitions. In New to Eating Disorders (pp. 84–92). essay, Cambridge University Press.
Muhlheim, L. (2015, October 19). Is your young adult with an eating disorder ready for college? Eating Disorder Therapy LA. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.eatingdisordertherapyla.com/is-your-young-adult-with-an-eating-disorder-ready-for-college/
Ravin, S. K. (2014, June 5). Guest Post: Relapse Prevention. FEAST. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.feast-ed.org/guest-post-relapse-prevention/
Sclisizzi, K., Wilton, K., & Jasper, K. J. (2014, February). Managing Triggers while Recovering from an Eating Disorder. NEDIC. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://nedic.ca/download-file/1540817057.908429-52/
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