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Background Information Eating disorders are
serious emotional and physical illnesses that come in varied forms including
anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is the practice of self-starvation.
The anorexic deprives herself of food because eating makes her feel
out-of-control and makes her feel "fat" and unattractive. The eating
disorder slowly takes over the anorexic's life and becomes a focal point in
her daily existence. On the other hand, the bulimic's eating disorder
takes the form of eating, sometimes overeating, and then purging, or
vomiting. Anorexia and bulimia are often difficult illnesses to treat.
However, left untreated they will take a physical toll on the patient and
malnutrition and death may occur.
What to do first
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It's important to be able to recognize anorexia.
Only when you can observe the symptoms can you help the individual to
get help and recover.
- Dramatic weight loss in a relatively
short period of time.
- Wearing big or baggy clothes or
dressing in layers to hide body shape and/or weight loss.
- Obsession with weight and complaining
of weight problems (even if "average" weight or thin).
- Obsession with calories and fat
content of foods.
- Obsession with continuous exercise.
- Frequent trips to the bathroom
immediately following meals (sometimes accompanied with water running in
the bathroom for a long period of time to hide the sound of vomiting).
- Visible food restriction and
self-starvation.
- Visible bingeing and/or purging.
- Use or hiding use of diet pills,
laxatives, ipecac syrup (can cause immediate death!) or enemas.
- Isolation. Fear of eating around and
with others.
- Unusual Food rituals such as shifting
the food around on the plate to look eaten; cutting food into tiny
pieces; making sure the fork avoids contact with the lips (using teeth
to scrap food off the fork or spoon); chewing food and spitting it out,
but not swallowing; dropping food into napkin on lap to later throw
away.
- Hiding food in strange places
(closets, cabinets, suitcases, under the bed) to avoid eating (Anorexia)
or to eat at a later time (Bulimia).
- Flushing uneaten food down the toilet
(can cause sewage problems).
- Vague or secretive eating patterns.
- Keeping a "food diary" or lists that
consists of food and/or behaviors (ie., purging, restricting, calories
consumed, exercise, etc.)
- Pre-occupied thoughts of food, weight
and cooking.
- Reading books about weight loss and
eating disorders.
- Self-defeating statements after food
consumption.
- Hair loss. Pale or "grey" appearance
to the skin.
- Dizziness and headaches.
- Frequent soar throats and/or swollen
glands.
- Low self-esteem. Feeling worthless.
Often putting themself down and complaining of being "too stupid" or
"too fat" and saying they don't matter. Need for acceptance and approval
from others.
- Complaints of often feeling cold.
- Low blood pressure.
- Loss of menstrual cycle.
- Constipation or incontinence.
- Bruised or calluses knuckles;
bloodshot or bleeding in the eyes; light bruising under the eyes and on
the cheeks.
- Perfectionist personality.
- Loss of sexual desire or promiscuous
relations.
- Mood swings. Depression. Fatigue.
- Insomnia. Poor sleeping habits
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Take the
Eating Disorder Test. This self-scoring test will help you to
determine if you are suffering from an eating disorder. It was
developed by Eating
Disorder Associates.
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