Eating Disorders

How can anorexia and bulimia affect you?

If you aren't getting enough calories, you may:

Psychological symptoms

  • Sleep badly.

  • Find it difficult to concentrate or think clearly about anything other than food or calories.

  • Feel depressed.

  • Lose interest in other people.

  • Become obsessive about food and eating (and sometimes other things such as washing, cleaning or tidiness).

Physical symptoms

  • Find it harder to eat because your stomach has shrunk.

  • Feel tired, weak and cold as your body's metabolism slows down.

  • Become constipated.

  • Notice changes in your hair and skin. Some people's head hair falls out, but they grow downy hair on other parts of the body. Skin becomes dry and you can have pressure sores.

  • Not grow to your full height

  • Get brittle bones which break easily.

  • Damage your liver, particularly if you drink alcohol.

  • In extreme cases, you may die. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychological disorder.

If you vomit, you may:

  • lose the enamel on your teeth (it is dissolved by the stomach acid in your vomit)

  • get a puffy face (the salivary glands in your cheeks swell up)

  • notice your heart beating irregularly - palpitations (vomiting disturbs the balance of salts in your blood)

  • feel weak

  • feel tired all the time

  • experience huge weight swings

Do You Have A Problem?

  • Do you make yourself sick because you're uncomfortably full?

  • Do you worry that you’ve lost control over how much you eat?

  • Have you recently lost more than 6 kilograms (about one stone) in three months?

  • Do you believe you’re fat when others say you’re thin?

  • Would you say that food dominates your life?

If you answer yes to two or more of these questions, you may have an eating disorder.