For many people, college can be a time of increased stress and anxiety. If you are a college student who is ALSO walking through anorexia recovery, it can certainly be a lot to manage.

In today’s blog post, I’m sharing 6 tips for managing anorexia recovery in college. College can be a time of GROWTH and HEALING in your anorexia recovery journey. With some additional intentionality and the right support in place, heading away for school doesn’t have to be a setback in your relationship with food and your body.

While a difficult stat to accurately quantify, according to this website, the average age of anorexia onset is 18.9 years — exactly the age of most college freshmen! While the vast majority of college students won’t ever end up meeting the strict diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, it is still a population at increased risk for the development of an eating disorder. And, formal eating disorders aside, many/most college women do wrestle with at least some degree of disordered eating. You can read more about what I mean by an eating disorder versus disordered eating here.

6 Tips for Managing Anorexia Recovery in College:

Get quality support in place! 

Whether you are well into maintaining your anorexia recovery or just getting started, the transition to college is a vital time to have good support in place. If you are moving away from home, it is quite likely your first time essentially living on your own. College brings a whole lot of “natural and expected stressors” for pretty much everyone, such as increased school workload, potential sadness/anxiety navigating living away from home/friends/family, and the pressure about what to major in / do with your future… Enough to make anyone’s baseline stress and anxiety levels go up!

Add on top of that the additional stressors and challenges of anorexia recovery, and you may find yourself with a lot on your plate (metaphorically speaking). ALL the more reason to have a quality therapist and dietitian in place before getting to school.

You CAN most certainly continue your healing in college, it will just take some additional intentionality, effort, and creativity.

(Note: there are of course circumstances where a higher level of care and/or more supervision for recovery may be warranted than can be provided in an outpatient setting while in college).

Have some sort of accountability with your food intake.

When living on your own / without daily “parental supervision,” it can be helpful to have some sort of accountability when it comes to food intake for anorexia recovery. Maybe you are working on maintaining your recovery weight by eating regular meals and snacks. Maybe you are actively working on some weight restoration. Either way, “healthy and friendly accountability” when it comes to food intake can be helpful to prevent any “slips” from becoming “slides.”

One main way to have accountability is of course regular sessions with a dietitian who specializes in eating disorders. Sometimes clients will share with me food journals or food photo journals of what they’ve been eating that week, or we will just process through verbally. My clients can trust that I am never going to judge or criticize them when it comes to food intake or “how recovery is going.” Challenges are to be expected and we can work through them together.

Other ideas for accountability include meeting with an on-campus dietitian or therapist, or enlisting the support of a trusted friend or roommate!

Utilize the dining hall and know your go-to options.

Let’s face it… dining hall food is not always the absolute best. BUT, it can be helpful for recovery to have access to a dining hall so that it removes one more barrier when it comes to managing food intake. Having food already prepared can be immensely helpful.

On the one hand, it can be good for your recovery to push yourself to experiment with a wide variety of options that may be offered at the dining hall. This can be a unique time of life to explore foods you wouldn’t usually try or prepare on your own. Looking at the menu ahead of time might be a helpful strategy to know what to expect.

(Note: I generally find it frustrating that a lot of school websites include calorie info for each food/dish; if this is the case then I would likely NOT recommend this strategy and would instead try to ignore all of that as much as possible).

On the other hand, I also recommend knowing your go-to options that work well or better for you so that you have some go-to ideas for each meal of the day. This could be whatever works for you… something to get in a source of fat/protein/carbohydrate in a reasonable quantity depending on YOUR nutrition needs.

Have non-perishable snacks on hand. 

Having snacks (especially non-perishable snacks) on hand is a MUST in my opinion when it comes to anorexia recovery in college.

I know this can be a challenge, as many of you (who are in college) may not have a car on campus or an adequate grocery store within walking distance. If these are obstacles you face, I would encourage you to think about getting creative in “acquiring” your snacks.

Consider joining a friend/roommate when she is heading to the grocery store/running errands, stocking up on snacks when you are at home (easier if living somewhat locally), having your mom or dad bring you snacks once in a while, utilizing on-campus snack/mini food stores, or utilizing food pantries on campus, especially if finances are more of a factor (such as the Maize and Blue Cupboard at UofM).

Basically, I recommend doing what you need to do to have access to regular eating/snacking, whether you live in a dorm or in a house/apartment. Given the flexible, on-the-go nature of the typical college lifestyle, this is one of my top recommendations!

When I was in college I lived in a dorm that had limited dining hall hours, so I definitely needed to use a lot of my own snacks in my dorm room to supplement my eating. (I would even sneak things like the almond butter I liked downstairs to add to my oatmeal!). We also had limited dining options on the weekends, so I needed to get creative about that as well.

Consider viewing regular eating/snacking as ESSENTIAL to your recovery and ability to continue engaging in all the other aspects of college!

Pursue friendships and other healthy ways to relieve stress/anxiety. 

Recovering from anorexia is hard and stressful, especially on top of everything else you are needing to manage in college. While it can be easy (especially for those of us with perfectionistic, high-achieving tendencies) to get swept up into studying excessively, it is so crucial to health and well-being to also focus on other aspects of the college experience, such as building friendships and getting involved in something outside of school.

For anyone, anorexia recovery can feel all-encompassing, so having some sort of outlet for fun, stress relief, and/or distraction is vital!

Other ways to consider relieving stress in college include:

• Having boundaries on a study end-time (in general; might not always be practical right before a big exam or project due date); implement some sort of restful evening routine to wind down and see this as also important to your health and ability to engage in your recovery and school work
• Getting outside in nature, such as a regular walk or heading to a place to sit and enjoy a nice view
• Reading books for fun or watching an engaging show or movie to get your mind off of everything going on
• Pursuing meaning outside of your goals with school and/or your focus on recovery; maybe consider enjoyable volunteer work or being a part of a church or other faith community/student group

Focus on staying in your own lane with your health journey! 

I think this one is ESPECIALLY difficult in a college environment… you are surrounded by potentially thousands of other students all in a similar life-stage… it can be so easy to compare yourself to what others are doing!

In a culture in which we are inundated with messages to eat less and exercise more, it can feel so hard to need to do the opposite. Especially in college, where the obsession with looks and body image is often even more pronounced.

What’s more, we generally have no idea how most people are eating the entirety of the day. We might catch a sliver of someone’s day in regard to food and make assumptions about what and how they are eating the rest of the day, and use what another person is doing as an arbitrary standard by which to compare our own self.

How can you focus on staying in your own lane when it comes to your anorexia recovery? I think it takes a lot of courage, dedication, authenticity, and maturity to stay true to your own health goals/needs, even when they may be contrary to what everyone else is doing.

While an incredibly challenging process, your anorexia recovery is teaching you so many life skills that will be applicable with many challenges you may face over the rest of your life… academic and career and beyond!

You are growing in resiliency, and in finding solutions to problems that seem unsolvable at first. You are growing in the ability to tolerate distressing situations and emotions for a long period of time.  And you are learning how to focus on one step at a time as a method for achieving a really difficult goal. Much more could be said! I wouldn’t wish anorexia upon anyone, but the character built, emotional growth achieved, and life lessons learned by going through recovery and then maintaining recovery are worthwhile.

Looking for more support in your anorexia recovery journey?

Message me your questions or consider working together one-on-one!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!