How do I know if I have an eating disorder

Seven out of every thousand girls suffers from an eating disorder, and one out of every thousand boys, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, writing on the BBC website. In a world where thin bodies are valued, vulnerable people can find themselves developing an eating disorder. Eating disorders can devastate life for sufferers and their families and lead to long periods of treatment.

Identification

• Anorexia nervosa involves starving your body of food and losing dramatic amounts of weight. Restricting your food groups, such as carbohydrates or fats, or excessive exercising to lose weight, may be the start of anorexia. If you have bulimia nervosa, your weight may be normal, as you have bouts of overeating. You may use vomiting and laxatives to try to control your weight gain. The medical profession sometimes takes binge eating disorder less seriously, according to the National Centre for Eating Disorders, but compulsive eating may mean that food rules your life, as you struggle with constant dieting attempts.

Causes

• You are most likely to develop an eating disorder if you are female, between 12 and 25 years old, according to the charity B-eat, but disorders can begin as late as middle age. Sufferers, whether male or female, often trace the beginning of their illness to occasions when someone called them fat. Eating can become a problem if you use food as a support when you feel lonely, anxious or bored. Difficulties with friends, work, college, school or family may be part of the problem.

Symptoms

• Ask yourself whether you feel guilty about eating, vomit or use laxatives to keep your weight down or feel depressed. Do you sometimes pretend to have eaten, avoid many different foods and feel ashamed if you eat them? If other people are worried you are too thin, but you disagree, or if your weight goes up and down constantly, you may be at risk of an eating disorder. If you have overwhelming cravings for food that you think you must avoid, or if you think constantly about food, calories and your weight, you should consider talking to a sympathetic person about your eating patterns.

Treatment

• You may find it hard to overcome an eating disorder without help, and the best place to start is with your GP. Treatment may involve counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy or family therapy, or combinations of these, based on guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Your GP may offer you a place at a specialist eating disorders unit, where a psychiatrist can assess your illness.

Warning

• A severe eating disorder may deprive your body of food until you become dehydrated or even suffer kidney damage. Your heartbeat may become irregular, your bones brittle and, for women and girls, periods may stop. You could have constipation and your muscles may become weak. You may find it harder to think, due to the effects of starvation, and if your health is seriously undermined you may need hospital treatment, until you regain a safe weight.