One student battles compulsive overeating

I suffer from a newly-named eating disorder, compulsive overeating, which is like bulimia, but you don't vomit. People who have this eating disorder are either really overweight or they maintain their weight by not eating on certain days.

I find that many people with eating disorders have problems with the dining halls because of how much food there is and also because the food has so much fat in it. For someone who is trying to deal with anorexia, being confronted with so much fatty food, with oil dripping everywhere, could very easily make them slip back into old habits of not eating.

For someone with anorexia, going into the dining hall is even scarier because of the fear of the fat in the foods. I have never been afraid of the fat — I just feel undesirable and ugly when I wear a size 8 or 10 jeans and everyone around me wears size 2 or 4.

If a really overweight girl walks by, I'll think to myself, that's how other people see me. And that's how I see myself. It takes a lot to convince myself that I don't look like that. Really, I look pretty good. It's just hard because I have a completely distorted vision of myself in my head. — Anonymous Princeton student