<p>At my college, <em>crosses fingers</em> if I get accepted (very good chances that I will), they have a very good counseling center. I have been facing 2 eating dsorders for over 3 years now, alone. When I enroll, can I partake in this service, or are they going to make me pay out of pocket to a psychologist not on campus?</p>
<p>we have no idea, call them and ask, you don't have to leave a name</p>
<p>Don't wait that long!!. If you are not yet accepted, My guess is that you will be applying for Fall 08 and that is over a year away. There must be something available to you sooner from a counseling standpoint. Have you ever received counseling/treatment before?</p>
<p>You best shot at getting over an eating disorder is with professional help. Your prognosis just isn't as good without it (statistically). Also, the sooner you get into treatment, the better the prognosis.</p>
<p>If your parents do not know about your struggles, please, please tell them. Hand them the book When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder by Abigail Natenshon. If you feel that you cannot tell your parents, go to another trusted adult.</p>
<p>If your parents do know, and if finances are a problem, there just still has to be a way for you to get some help. Eating disorders are really serious - I am sure you understand that they can be life threatening. You cannot wait to get help! Speak to your family doctor. If your parents bring you for another reason, you can speak privately with him and I believe he is legally bound to keep your confidence. But maybe he can give you information on a social worker or a free therapy group. Explain your situation to your doctor.</p>
<p>Jumping into the stress of college without having a handle on your disease is very unwise.</p>
<p>Please take care of yourself. Email me anytime on this, BTW.</p>
<p>Definitely look into getting help sooner. You don't seem adverse to counseling, so please look into it now. If you're afraid to tell your parents by yourself, you can have a trusted adult present--even your doctor.</p>
<p>Most colleges offer short-term counseling for free through student health services, but you would be expected to pay for long-term therapy or seeing an out-of-school specialist, in many cases.</p>
<p>If cost and access are concerns for you while you're still in HS, I agree you should talk to your doctor. You can just tell your mom/dad you want to see your doctor for something you don't want to discuss with them. (Let them assume it's for birth control or sex-related issues.) Once there, explain your issue to your doc and tell him/her you need cheap (or free) counseling. S/He will help.</p>
<p>I have been in touch with a friend in Europe whose daughter has anorexia. She had to be hospitalized; for a while, it was feared that the anorexia had damaged some of her internal organs. She is now out of hospital and into rehabilitation. It is expected that it may take up to a whole year.
She got to that stage because of shortage of facilties in that country for anorexia victims. Don't let your health deteriorate to such a point. Don't think of it as something to deal with in college. You need to deal with it now.</p>
<p>If concern for your heart, liver and kidneys isn't enough to scare you into your doctor's office, perhaps a typical teenage concern for looks will. </p>
<p>Both anorexia and bulimia will steal your beauty. This is not only an inside-out thing (where nutritional deficiencies affect how much hair you have on your head, or the texture of your skin). Consistently bathing your teeth in the acid from your stomach contents will permanently change the surface of your teeth, making them more prone to staining and decay. At a party, your teeth will turn dark every time you take a bite or sip of something that isn't light in color. Damage to the surface of your teeth will lead to cavities, and also having to have your teeth drilled down to stumps so that an artificial crown can be glued on top. At worst, whole teeth will need to be pulled, with fake ones mined into your jawbone (at about $25,000 a piece).</p>
<p>Sorry to be graphic, but if you are battling this "alone" as you say, I wanted to make sure that you heard the whole story from someone. I know just hearing all of this won't fix anything, but perhaps it will help inspire you to reach out for help from your physician and parents.</p>
<p>Here is another book for you and your parents: The Romance of Risk by Lynn E. Ponton. There is a great chapter on a girl battling anorexia. The author's thesis is that an absence of healthy risk-taking can be a basis for dangerous behavior.</p>
<p>Perhaps I can help answer some of your questions. My d's school gave her 7 free (or nearly free) individual therapy sessions for her eating disorder (ED) over the course of her Freshman year. Her school also had some group ED sessions that would be in addition to the 7 free sessions. Other schools' policies differ, but I doubt if many are significantly more generous. My d's school is a fine LAC, blessed with a very large endowment, and known for having excellent student resouces. </p>
<p>I am not certain why you want to wait until college to get the help you need to recover. Perhaps it is a fear or embarassment--or a worry about the cost of therapy? As a mom of a wonderful daughter suffering from an ED, I want to share a few things with you.</p>
<p>First, adjusting to college is hard--and adjusting to college while battling an ED is even harder. Getting the help you need now will make the transition to college much better.</p>
<p>Second, seven sessions is unlikely to be enough. My d, for example, currently is in therapy twice a week -- and has been for many months. Many EDs have a linkage to depression and anxiety. Getting better takes time. Use this last year at home to give yourself the time you need to get better. </p>
<p>Third, your mom and dad will be ever so grateful if they know that you have a good treatment path before you go away. They want the best for you and will have a hard time helping you when you are far away.</p>
<p>Last, know that many young women (and some men) have battled an ED at one time or another in their life. With help, people get better and live healthy, happy lives.</p>
<p>^Good post.</p>
<p>FutureHsteacher8,
I noticed on another post that you were accepted at the school of your choice. Congrats! I did a small calculation (that I suggest other people interested in colleges do) to review the level of mental health services available to students on campus. I divided the number of students (in your case about 10,500) by the number of counselors (at your school that number is 5). The ratio of students to counselors at your school is pretty high. Given this, my hunch is that they can not offer many individual sessions. I also checked the number of group sessions offered and looked specifically for an ED related group. Again, the level of resources that will be available to you at your college is not high. My d's college (about one fifth of the size), for example, has significantly more group therapy sessions (including one for people struggling with ED). Your school does not. Please do not read this message and be discouraged. My only point is to tell you that waiting is not your answer. You sound like a very organized, capable, and determined young woman. Your next task is to refocus your attention from getting into college to getting the help you need to get better. Please know that there is a lot of support for you out there. While you may think that the information will be hard on your family, speaking from first hand experience I will tell you that the hardest thing is to have a beloved daughter struggling. Moms and dads want to help their kids. In the case of my daughter, she thought she was disappointing everyone by being not quite as perfect as she seemed. She kept her ED to herself for a long time, hurting herself more and more. I am so proud (and so relieved) that she found the courage to tell me and reach out for help. She is getting better now . You can, too.</p>