Sexual Trauma and Eating Disorders on College Campuses

Crimes of a sexual nature are gaining attention throughout the United States. Today, sexual assault is epidemic on college campuses. The grim statistic is that one in four college women will be the victim of sexual assault during her academic career.*

Sexual assault is typically code for rape, arguably one of the most horrific and traumatizing acts that can be perpetrated against a woman. At college, this often comes in the form of date rape. Date rape occurs when someone is forced by another person they are dating or spending time with to have sex.

An Under Reported Crime

Whether committed in a dorm room or parking lot, sexual assault remains the most under reported crime in the United States today. Often, the victim experiences a great deal of embarrassment, shame or guilt.

Too frequently, they feel somehow responsible, complicit in the act. They may erroneously believe that if they had not consumed alcohol at a party, or asked a friend to walk home together after night class rather than going alone, the assault would not have occurred.

Therefore, instead of reporting the crime, they choose to go forward with life as if nothing had ever transpired. This course of action, though understandable, rarely helps in the healing process. Although the body may no longer reflect signs of violation, the mind is often far less forgiving.

Sexual Assault and Eating Disorders

At times, rape victims experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other forms of post-trauma responses. PTSD is a severe trauma spectrum disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma.

PTSD in a sexual assault victim can manifest in flashbacks, vivid memories or nightmares related to the event. Constant fear and anxiety may also be experienced.

If some type of counseling or therapeutic support is not received, the emotional pain involved can lead to myriad and dangerous coping tactics such as an eating disorder.

Colleges and universities have taken steps to address eating disorders among students by offering access to mental health professionals, specialized treatment programs, educational programs, and peer support groups.

Locate Student Services

Using Food to Mitigate Pain

Although food exists to feed the body, it can be used in an unhealthy fashion to mitigate pain or replace sensation. Restricting food serves as a coping mechanism in that it results in the numbing or dulling of emotions and sensations through perceived control.

The more a person restricts, the less is felt. Starvation used as an anxiety-reducer can result in a sense of calm. In other words, the behavior accomplishes the goal of replacing sensations and emotions that are intolerable.

Holding the Sexual Assault Pain at Bay

A person with profound emotional strife may turn to food in another fashion. Just as with anorexia, the behavior can begin harmlessly enough. Many people view food as soothing, hence the term “comfort food.” When feeling particularly bad, they may binge on food viewed as comforting. While doing so, the pain is held at bay.

The focus is on the food, the act of consumption, filling. Once the bags of chocolate chip cookies or potato chips are gone, a degree of physical discomfort ensues often along with a high level of guilt. To eliminate both experiences, they purge, usually by vomiting.

This action brings a degree of physical reward, due to the endorphins that are released in the brain. Vomiting is such a violent act that the body tries to sooth itself through these chemicals. The result is a momentary sense of peace or calm.

Removing the Attributes of Femininity

Both of these psychiatric diseases offer certain immediate rewards. Each provides an added benefit in that the behaviors involved will eventually alter physical appearance. Victims of sexual assault often view this physical alteration positively due to perceptions of culpability.

Becoming shockingly thin removes stereotypical attributes of femininity such as breasts and hips. As well, despite purging by a bulimic, weight gain usually occurs. The end result in both of these arenas is an alteration of the body that results in a feeling of being a less-desirable target.

For the victim, this can be a strategy to reduce the probability of a second rape occurring.

Functioning without Fuel

Although anorexia and bulimia do serve a purpose in a sexual assault victim’s life, there are unintended and exceedingly negative consequences. Social life and relationships with the family will ultimately be affected. This is to say nothing of the long-term physical and academic effects.

The whole person, emotional, mental, physical cannot function without fuel. What a person rarely knows at the time that they embrace anorexia or bulimia behaviors, is that eating disorders are incredibly addictive.

The longer a person practices restriction or binge/purge behaviors, the harder the addiction is to break. What’s more, they rarely resolve on their own and support needs to be encouraged.

If you, or someone you know, are struggling with a food-related disorder as a result of sexual trauma, please get to help you need.

Contributor: Megan Ross, LPC, R-DMT, GL-CMA, Director of Program Development & Trauma Awareness, of Timberline Knolls

About Timberline Knolls:

Located in suburban Chicago, Timberline Knolls is a leading private residential treatment center for females (ages 12 – 65+) with eating disorders, substance abuse, trauma, mood and co-occurring disorders. For more information, call 877.257.9611 today.

References:

1. http://www.oneinfourusa.org/

The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.

Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on January 16th, 2015
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com