"It feels like you're behind a glass wall and people don't relate directly to you," Whalen says. "I didn't feel good, but I was sort of proud of myself, because I was different."

The many and varied causes of eating disorders--ranging from the personal to the socio-cultural to the biological--are intensified for women in the college atmosphere, according to Heatherton.

Timothy M. Hall '94, co-director of Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach (ECHO), says that perfectionists and people suffering under family pressure may be predisposed to eating disorders.

The perfectionist tendency provides one explanation for why eating disorders are so prevalent in highly competitive colleges, according to Sheila Riendl, co-supervisor of ECHO and leader of an eating concerns group for bulimic women at the Bureau of Study Counsel.

"Harvard and places like Harvard self-select for just the kind of person who is susceptible to an eating disorder," she says.

This desire for perfection extends to physical appearance, says Heatherton. Although men are not impervious to the diet mentality, society's "emphasis on physical appearance" is stronger for women than for men. Society's conception of the ideal female body is unrealistic, and college women undergoing natural physiological changes often feel trapped by their own biology, he says.

Riendl identifies the current idealization of an androgynous body type as a major source of eating disorders. "Women internalize an objectifying regard for themselves...and overvalue a very unwomanly shape," she says.

The incidence of eating disorders is particularly high among "athletes, dancers, gymnasts, weightlifters, wrestlers, swimmers, divers and people on crew," Hall says.

Students face stress from many sides, notably from themselves, the college environment and their families. When stress is high, some students may feel that the only aspect of their lives they can still control is their eating habits, says Hall.

One female student, who has recently overcome a combination of bulimia and anorexia, described an overpowering need for some control over her life.

"My life is out control," she says. "I have all this work. My boyfriend isn't here for me. What can I control? I can control what I put in my mouth."

And for people who are personally predisposed to abnormal eating, being at the mercy of the dining hall's menu and atmosphere can be extremely oppressive, say some students who suffer from eating disorders.

One student--who was anorexic in high school and became bulimic during her first year at Harvard--says, "The [Harvard] Union is probably the worst thing you can do to a freshman girl. There's all this high calorie food and you feel like everyone's watching you and it really makes eating an unpleasant experience."

Harvard's fattening food is not the only culprit, say other students. They say the college environment fosters an overwhelming group pressure to diet or to engage in abnormal eating behaviors.

"I end up eating out a lot instead of in the dining hall because I don't want people watching what I'm eating and I don't want want to notice what other people are eating, especially if they're trying to diet," says a student suffering from bulimia.