hinness. Myrna Friedlander and Sheri Siegel agree with other findings that the constellation of difficulties associated with eating problems relate to the student's family background. Many college women who seek counseling for assistance with eating disorders have problems in their relationships with their mothers. These students experience dependency conflicts, a diminished sense of individuality, beliefs about personal ineffectiveness, qualities of distrust and immaturity, and an inability to distinguish between emotion and hunger tFriedlander & Siegel, 1990, p. 77). The difficulty in determining whether she is hungry or lonely, hungry or tired, hungry or afraid, greatly increases the chance that such a student will eat instead of meeting the emotional need in a healthier way. The young female student with eating problems feels worthless and inadequate. She has a poor sense of personal control. She may be hypersensitive and feel merged with others. She is unable to regulate herself and may be grandiose, exhibitionistic, even tyrannical. This type of student likely 9 comes from a dysfunctional background, one in which individual differentiation is not valued or promoted. It is unfortunate that the eating disorder serves to further tie her in an unhealthy way to her parents, who in turn, do not wish to let her grow into personal independence. It is evident from the research available that the reasons for college women's difficulties with eating disorders are many and complex. Some of the roots are in society itself--a society that teaches women to acquiesce to pressures and intimidation rather than to fight or change their circumstances and a society that teaches women that they are supposed to look a certain way in order to be acceptable. There is a great deal of information about the relationship between the family of origin and the resulting eating disordered behavior. Families with addictions, punitive behavior, anger, hostility, bl...
