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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
Why do university students have double the rates of eating disorders 
and pornography addiction as the general population? 
 
Answer: 
 
A couple of months ago, I was in Boston doing some work for Campus 
Crusade, and we had students from Harvard, Boston University, a 
number of ivy league schools at our conference, and I talked to some 
of the staff of Campus Crusade and asked them their impression of 
pornographic addiction among the men and eating disorders among 
the women. 
 
Some of the staff people told me this, at Harvard they were talking to 
professionals at the mental health center, and the professionals said 
90% of the women are struggling with food issues, 90% of the guys 
are struggling with pornography. 
 
Now frankly, I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it tells you 
something. Typically, college and university students have double the 
rate of incidence of the general population when it comes to 
pornography addiction and food or eating issues.  
 
There are three reasons for this higher incidence of addictive behavior. 
 
The first is simply the age of the students. They’re young, and when 
you’re young, you’re impulsive.  
 
Secondly, it’s the nature of the university or college campus, where 
people are simply reduced to their appetites because typically on those 
 
 
campuses people do not know who they are, nor do they know the 
value of the gender that they have. That being the case, they’re simply 
reduced to their appetites.  
 
The third reason is, the more prestigious the school, the more 
pressure the student feels, and under that stress they will use 
addictive behaviors to deal with the stress.  
 
Remember, addiction is a simple formula: stress or pain, plus a 
pleasure, equals addiction. (Stress or pain + a pleasure = addiction.) 
 
On our university campuses, there is plenty of pain to feed addiction.  
 
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