Anorexia

Behavioural symptoms

• Thinking about food all the time.
• Feeling like you want to disappear.
• Feeling like you have to be perfect or you are not good enough because of what you have eaten or what you look like.
• Lying about eating, when you have eaten and how much you have eaten.
• Frightened about putting on weight.
• Feeling a sense of achievement from denying yourself food or over-exercising.
• Obsessively doing certain things in a certain way like eating the same things in the same order or avoiding certain foods you think are bad.
• Panicking around meal times.

Physical symptoms

• Weighing less than you should.
• Feeling weak.
• Feeling cold all the time.
• If you have periods they may become irregular or stop.
• Hair thinning or falling out.
• Thin, fuzzy hair appearing on your arms or face.

Psychological symptoms:

• Lots of sufferers describe anorexia as having a voice in their head, constantly talking to them.
• Constantly thinking about food and exercise.
• Becoming obsessive of when and what you eat.
• Believing that you’ll be ‘happy’ once you reach a certain weight.