These days, dieting is so commonplace that it’s often accepted as the norm rather than the exception. So if you’re a teacher, or a parent at what point should you be concerned that your pupil or child is suffering from an eating disorder rather than just dieting along with all their peers?
Here are 6 tell-tale signs – you may not be able to spot them all yourself but a chat with their friends may help you glean some more information.
Her diet is very restrictive, allowing consumption of only a few hundred calories a day
One of the key differences between a regular diet and an eating disorder is one of scale. Generally speaking, a young person with an eating disorder will restrict their calorie intake to only a few hundred calories per day. Allowing themselves to eat maybe half or maybe even less, the number of calories they are likely to expend in a day.
He adheres to the diet religiously every day, with no slips
Most people diet at some point, and most people fail. It’s simply human nature. We have a bad Tuesday morning and we indulge in a biscuit. Not only is this normal, it’s healthy. Allowing ourselves the occasional treat and not beating ourselves up about it too much is about the only way most people can persevere with a healthy diet. However, eating disorders sufferers tend to be very black and white in their thinking and go with an all or nothing approach. They will very rarely deviate from their prescribed diet, and if they do, they are likely to punish themselves by eating even less for the rest of the day, or doing heavy exercise or similar.
She avoids certain foods altogether instead of replacing them with healthy alternatives
During a healthy diet you might replace butter with low fat spread or eat brown bread instead of white bread. There are no end of healthier choices we can make when we’re trying to shed a little bit of weight. However, someone with an eating disorder tends to take the all or nothing approach and instead of choosing a healthier alternative will remove an entire food or even food group from their diet. It’s very common to find that young people with eating disorders will choose to follow a vegetarian or dairy free diet for example. People with eating disorders feel very comfortable with rules and are often much happier to create a very strict rule e.g. ‘No Wheat’ and stick to it carefully rather than attempting to find compromises and alternatives to foods they perceive as dangerous.
He regularly takes additional measures to keep his weight down e.g. laxatives or heavy exercise
Many people who diet will also take exercise in order to try and control their weight, but the thing to look out for in the case of young people with eating disorders is a lack of balance. So a young person might be BOTH restricting their food intake to 1000 calories per day AND doing heavy exercise every day. It’s not uncommon for a young person with an eating disorder to try and exercise off exactly as many calorie as they’ve consumed (or more).
Whilst exercise is a sliding scale and some young people may do it healthily whilst others take it too far, if a young person is vomiting, using laxatives or diuretics to control their weight, this is a clear indicator that something is badly wrong and they need support as soon as possible.
She panics at the thought of having to deviate from the diet due to e.g. a meal out
Whilst on a diet, most people will happily take a night off to enjoy a meal with friends, or make a best attempt at making healthy choices whilst eating somewhere new. A young person with an eating disorder would find this idea terrifying and might even avoid the whole situation altogether. The thought of having to consume more calories than they’ve budgeted for or having to eat a meal where they’re not completely in control and may not know the exact ingredients and/or calorie content can induce anything from mild panic to full blown panic attacks in a young person with an eating disorder.
He considers his success or failure at his diet to directly reflect on his success or failure as a person
This is absolutely key. We all diet. We all fail, most of us laugh it off and try again next month. A young person with an eating disorder will not do this though. Their whole day can get off to a good or a bad start depending on what the weighing scales say. Eating half an apple more than they have prescribed themselves in their diet may result in them seeing themselves as a bad person or a failure. And it’s not uncommon for young people with eating disorders to feel that they don’t deserve to eat at all. This highly negative relationship between food and self-esteem is a key indicator of eating disordered behaviour and a clear sign that a young person needs support.
If reading this has left alarm bells ringing, you might like to read this post:
Worried a pupil might have an eating disorder? When should you say something?
