The new environment you are in need not mean you are disconnected from the support options available to you. If you are not at home here are some ideas about ways you can help yourself:

• Make a regular ‘appointment’ to call home, maybe once a week.
• If you are feeling low, you may find it comforting to visit home if that is possible.
• Access the support network and structures you can identify around the college – this may include the college health service, student counselling service, students’ union welfare officer, a chaplain or other student support services.
• Contact Bodywhys:
  Helpline: 01 2107906
  Email support: alex@bodywhys.ie
  Website: www.bodywhys.ie

• Learn how to plan for and cook some of your favourite and straightforward recipes at home before you transition to college.
• It is a good idea to talk to your parents, older siblings, family friends or anyone else you know who has attended college and who can share some of their experience with you.
• Before you go, think about attending a college open day. Here, you can interact with current college students and staff.
• Read the literature of the college you will be attending, so that you can familiarise yourself with the new environment as much as possible before you get there. Explore your college’s online resources and practical support options that are available, both academic and personal.

Prepare in advance:

• Speak with your parents, family, and support network about potential fears and how you can plan to handle them in advance.
• If you are still in treatment or therapy, work with your therapist or health professional around the potential issues that may arise and around how you can cope.
• If you think you have an issue but haven’t spoken to anyone, it might help for you to speak to someone before going to college, or check in with a college support network in the first term to try to help you cope with the change.

No matter how much you prepare, change is always difficult – the move to college can be challenging whether or not you have other issues to consider.

In the first few weeks and months, it may feel like everything is coming at you all at once. Give yourself time to adjust to the new demands and challenges. Set realistic goals based on what you need to manage within your course. If you are finding it difficult to manage your time, making a timetable to provide structure to your week can help you to balance and monitor the demands of your course. Don’t forget to include time for social activities, rest/breaks and head space away from academic work.

Try not to place unreasonable expectations on yourself. You are likely to be in college for a number of years. Try to approach and complete your work in manageable steps. Monitor your assignment deadlines and try to progress your work gradually rather than all at once. Try to break the academic year into small chunks, taking each term as a block of time. Managing your expectations about the non-academic aspects of college is also important.

In college, there can be an emphasis on convenience foods in an effort to save time or money. Trying new foods can bring about changes that you may not anticipate and which may be triggering for disordered and distorted thoughts and behaviours around food. This is why it is important to try and bring your home life routine and food schedules with you to college, so that you try in as much as you can, to manage your diet in a way that does not escalate into distress.

Understandably, it is not always possible to find food stores and shops that are open outside of normal business hours. You may find yourself changing your eating habits to something more regimented than might previously have been possible if you were living at home with your parents. Or, you may find that the exact opposite starts to happen and you lose all structure and schedule around meal times, going for long periods without eating, which itself can be triggering for behaviours such as binging and purging.

Helpful tips:

• Try planning out your meals for the week and doing a weekly shop in a supermarket.
• If you are sharing a house or apartment with friends, think about sharing mealtimes so you aren’t eating alone.
• If you find it difficult to plan your meals, ask for help from home.

If you begin to see changes in your eating habits that worry you or you are not happy about, try to address this as early as possible by talking to someone.

Understandably, students can feel significant pressure at various times during the academic year, for example, before and during the exam period, as they work towards a final year project or thesis, when undertaking group work and as deadlines build up. Students undertaking placements can feel under pressure to meet the demands and standards of their course and cope with long hours, travel requirements, interactions with others or the need to complete practical tasks. It is during those periods that it can be easy to neglect your own needs such as eating regularly and getting enough rest and sleep.

If you think you are developing, or have developed, eating disordered behaviours, you may notice yourself:

• Having difficulty concentrating in class or whilst studying.
• Substituting study for social activities and reducing social contact with other people.
• Setting personal and academic standards that are extremely high and rigid.
• Feeling trapped in a cycle.
• Feeling preoccupied with what you are eating, what you weigh, and how you think you look to the outside world.
• You may find yourself having mood swings, where you feel fine one minute and then panicky and out of control suddenly.
• You may find yourself increasing exercise and sacrificing rest and social activities for exercise.

If you feel you are slipping behind in your work, it is really important to speak with someone about this. College staff understand stress, and they understand that college can be tough for everyone sometimes. It can help to:

• Speak with your tutor, lecturer or course supervisor.
• Clarify whether you are behind with assignments, and make arrangements to make up any missed work when you can.
• Work with academic advisors towards ensuring you are meeting the minimum requirements to pass your course/year.
• Communication can often be difficult – it is important to keep your tutor informed as to your progress.

If your eating disorder has become more of an issue, you may need to take some time away from college. If this is the case, you should work with your academic advisor to clarify your options around returning at a later stage to complete your studies.

If you are feeling alone in this new environment, an eating disorder may increase this feeling of isolation, and make the process of adjusting more difficult. If you begin to feel yourself withdrawing from the social side of college, it is a good idea to look at what activities might suit you.

• If you are more comfortable with the academic side of things, try spending time with classmates or your tutorial/project group.
• If you have a particular interest/hobby, look for a club or society that matches your interest.

The aim should be to find your own comfort zone within your new environment.