Davis does say she suspects more students suffer from bulimia than anorexia because the protoype of an intelligent, demanding, well-off and attractive over-achiever fits many Harvard undergraduates.

Dealing With Bulimia and the Bulimic

In her first year at Harvard, "Lisa Morris" had a roommate whom she suspected was bulimic. Popular, efficient and of average weight, her roommate would eat and eat and then spend a lot of time in the bathroom.

Morris says she once went into the bathroom in their suite and checked under the rim of the toilet bowl. She saw traces of vomit, and she felt her fears were confirmed.

"It was hard--it was a double role," Morris says. "You had to be supportive, but you also always had to be suspicious."

When Morris told her roommate that she might have a problem, her roommate cried, repeatedly saying that she was under a lot of stress.

Davis says she does not recommend confronting a roommate or friend who may be builimic. She says this tactic often backfires precisely because the disorder involves shame and denial, adding that confrontation can compound the problem.

Physical Repercussions

Fear about physical repercussions can also cause the friends and families of bulimic women to stress the repair of physical damage rather than the underlying emotional hurt, Schwartz says.

"A lot of it, I think, is identity--being insecure, not having a strong sense of self--these are a lot of the psychological things," she says.

Schwartz says the best way to help someone with bulimia is to be supportive and non-judgmental and to avoid pressuring them into recovery. She says friends or relatives should not discuss weight, food or eating habits with a bulimic.

"The important thing to do is not to say, 'You have an eating disorder,' because that's secondary," says Schwartz. "Focusing on problems and issues in the person's life is more important."

Schwartz says that if she and ECHO could do anything they wanted in order to educate the public, she would hold a workshop that everyone on campus would be required to attend. They would discuss what in society encourages women to loathe themselves and to express the self-loathing by damaging their own, healthy bodies.

Says Schwartz, "We would discuss what it is we're doing that leaves women never feeling they're good enough, good enough with their own size and shape, that they can never be thin enough."

For Those With Eating Concerns or Disorders