Louis R. Evans ’13, a resident of Canaday last year, said he ran downstairs to the bathroom by the Women’s Center one day to find a sign that surprised him. He recalled that it read: “The cleaning staff has reason to believe that someone who used this bathroom has an eating disorder. We encourage you to get in touch with resources.” Below the sign was printed a list of phone numbers.

“It was an odd experience to come face-to-face with the fact that maybe someone I knew was struggling with something,” Evans said. “It’s an issue that I hadn’t been aware of.”

Natalie C. Chapman ’11—a member of the Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach for the past seven semesters—attributes Harvard’s lack of awareness to a sense of social shame that pervades campus.

“It’s more common than people realize but no one talks about it, so how would you know?” Chapman said.

While she could not reveal the number of students who visit ECHO, Chapman said that “it is more than you think, but fewer than it should be.”

MORE THAN FOOD

Megan, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was a junior in high school when she developed anorexia. While frantically writing her college applications, her school threatened to expel her if she fell below a certain weight. She said that her unhealthy relationship with food exposed her to misconceptions about eating disorders.

“It’s not all about wanting to lose weight and be skinny,” Megan said. “People mistakenly think that if you physically force food into someone you’re fixing the problem. That’s just not true.”

Hawley shared Megan’s observation, saying that her therapy sessions did not discuss eating. Instead, she worked to confront problems without “punishing the body.”

Melissa Henriquez—a recovered disordered eater and a writer for “Let There Be Light,” a blog about disordered eating—says it is common for people to change their eating habits in unhealthy ways to cope with anxiety.

“Instead of dealing with whatever I was dealing with at the moment that I couldn’t control, I’d turn to something I could control,” said Henriquez, referring to food and exercise.

Anna Lucia Lister ’13, an ECHO peer counselor, said that despite what many people think, eating disorders can be complex and deadly conditions.

“Students often don’t appreciate how lethal eating disorders can be,” said Margaret S. McKenna ’70, a psychiatrist at UHS.

She cited mortality rates for anorexia as high as 5 to 10 percent.

Another myth about eating disorders is that they are just a “girl problem,” Lister said.