Students at Penn are becoming increasingly obsessed with losing weight.
According to a recent survey, the prevalence of eating disorders on campus is now rising faster than it is among the national population.
In 2001, Penn saw half as many cases of bulimia and anorexia as the nation in general. Now, with 4.3 percent of Penn students reporting eating disorders, Penn has risen above the national eating average of 4.1 percent, according to the National College Health Assessment.
This figure represents a four-fold increase from 2001, when approximately 1 percent of Penn students surveyed reported an eating disorder.
Ilene Rosenstein, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said that whether or not students have a full-blown eating disorders, her office has seen more reports of eating concerns than in the past.
Rosenstein said that students at Penn "want to be really healthy [and] want to be the best at everything. Some of us turn towards food to cope, and others ... turn away from food to cope."
Margaret Fichter, a psychologist at CAPS, said that although there is an increase in the number of students coming in for help, she is unsure as to whether eating concerns are becoming more prevalent or if at-risk students are becoming less afraid to seek help.
About 70 percent of respondents in 2004 were considered to be at a normal weight. Of these students, about 34 percent of men and about 60 percent of women were trying to lose weight even though they did not need to.
Victor Leino, research director at the American College Health Association, said that it is very hard to speculate on the cause of the national increase in reported cases of eating disorders.
"It's very, very difficult to disentangle," he said. "It could be a combination of [increased] awareness and an increase" in the number of eating disorders in general.
On Penn's campus, some students are taking steps to halt the trend. Wharton and Engineering senior Emily Burnett is a leader of Penn's student group Guide, which promotes positive body image through on-campus activities and workshops.
Poor body image is "a problem that really, really plagues the Penn community," she said. "It's so surprising that at a school like Penn you find so much insecurity in such bright people."
Burnett said that she "can't get over" how many women have distorted views about eating and obsess over food and exercise. She mentioned both freshman girls and sorority sisters as being particularly susceptible to eating disorders.
"I would hypothesize that they are the most at risk," she said of sorority members. "They have already ... self-selected into this group [that has] a very heightened awareness of looks and how other people perceive them."
Although Burnett realizes that the Guide workshops cannot "make any bit of different for girls that are already going to get an eating disorder," she said they can reaffirm individuals who already have good self-esteem and try and "celebrate the good and create discussion for girls in the in-between stage."
College junior Caroline Rothstein -- who has suffered from bouts of anorexia and bulimia over the past 10 years -- said that she believes at least 50 percent of students on Penn's campus, especially females, have some sort of issue with eating.
"That is something that is particular to Penn," she said. "It's a result of the type of student that comes here."
Rothstein also named the intense workload and the overwhelming number of perfectionists at Penn as factors that could perpetuate the problem of eating disorders and poor body image.
"The fact that nobody talks about it makes it more shameful," she said. "Everyone thinks that they're alone. People can keep everything inside their head."
However, Rothstein said that her own "experience with CAPS has been nothing but positive."
CAPS offers group therapy sessions for students with eating concerns. Discussions focus on body image, relationships and how to manage stress.
This year's group -- which meets once a week -- is composed of between 10 and 16 women. Rosenstein said that the number of interested students keeps growing and that CAPS is thinking about opening up another section.
