Eating Disorders

How can you tell if someone has an eating disorder?

You cannot tell if someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them. While it is true that some sufferers of anorexia are severely emaciated, some are not, and the majority of eating disorder sufferers do not have anorexia. Those suffering from bulimia may be within the normal weight range or may be overweight, while those with binge eating disorder are often overweight.

Professor John Morgan at Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust designed the SCOFF screening tool to indicate a possible eating disorder:

• Do you ever make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
• Do you worry you have lost Control over how much you eat?
• Have you recently lost more than One stone in a three month period?
• Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
• Would you say that Food dominates your life?

A score of two or more positive answers is a positive screen.

Click here to find more information on Anorexia and here to find out more about Bulimia. If you are worried about an eating disorder you can email our wellbeing mailbox wellbeing@christs.school. All emails are treated with the strictest confidence.

The Priory have recently put together a guide to all of the free eating disorder helplines available to provide people with someone to talk to as well as access to advice, information and support at moments when they are worried and feel that they need to reach out. You can access the guide here.