Once you finish our test, it’s a good idea to share your answers with a trusted adult, like your parents. However, if you feel uncomfortable with talking to your parents or another adult, it’s very important that you share these answers with your doctor. This is also a good test to take and discuss with your doctor if you have been diagnosed with an eating disorder and want to learn more about how it has affected you.
What are some of the warning signs of an eating disorder?
1. Do you think about food/eating a lot? Do you worry about what you eat (or don’t eat) and talk about how fat you think you are?
2. Have you started to avoid eating socially with others? Have you started to avoid eating in your home?
For example, do you refuse to eat anything your parent(s) cook or just get a diet cola at the mall at lunch while your friends share a pizza?
3. In your worry about your body image, have you started avoiding going to the pool or wearing a bathing suit, wearing baggy clothes or developing excuses not to participate in gym class.
4. Do you “diet” all the time? Do you latch onto any fad diet you see in a magazine?
5. Do you weigh yourself daily or more than once a day? Does being weighed make you angry? Does it make you sad?
6. While exercise is great, and while most of us probably need more exercise, have you become compulsive about exercising? Have you taken up a new form of exercise where you feel guilty or punish yourself if you miss a session?
7. Have you become more withdrawn from your family? Have you become more withdrawn from doing things with your friends?
8. Have you had a significant weight loss in the last two months, say more than 10 pounds?
9. Do you have fainting spells or dizziness all the time when you stand up?
10. If you are a female, have your menstrual periods become more irregular or have they stopped?
11. Are you cold a lot? Has your hair thinned or been falling out?
12. If you binge (eat lots of food you think is “bad” food) how much do you eat during a binge? Where does the binging occur? (When you are alone? With certain people when you’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else, etc.)
13. Have you ever used vomiting, diet pills, laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to counteract binging? (This action to counteract binging is called purging.)
14. If you have resorted to purging after binge eating, where does that purging occur? Does it happen in your bathroom, school bathroom, etc.? How do you feel after purging?
15. Have you ever vomited up blood or had blood in your bowel movements?
