This week is globally recognised as Eating Disorders Awareness Week: an opportunity to raise awareness and understanding of the disease and to challenge the stigmas attached to eating disorders.
The NHS defines eating disorders as ‘an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits’. Not only can the stress of university trigger eating disorders, but the fact that students are away from home and out of the watchful eye of their parents means that if eating patterns do change or become a danger, they often go undetected until they have reached a harmful stage. In a recent survey, more than 50% of teenage girls admitted to using unhealthy weight control techniques such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking, taking laxatives and throwing up.
It is inevitable that eating patterns change at university and it is important to stress that not all students that feel pressure to be a certain weight suffer from an eating disorder. That being said, the disease does have the highest morality rate of any mental illness and is something to be very aware of, especially in a student environment.
Some doctors recommend a questionnaire called SCOFF to help people to recognise if they are suffering from an eating disorder by answering the following five questions:
– Sick: Do you ever make yourself sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
– Control: Do you worry you have lost control over how much you eat?
– One stone: Have you recently lost more than one stone in a three-month period?
– Fat: Do you believe yourself to be fat when others say you are too thin?
– Food: Would you say that food dominates your life?
If you answer ‘yes’ to two or more of these questions, you may have an eating disorder.
It can be difficult to realise that a friend or a loved one has developed an eating disorder but there are many warning signs to look out for. Weight loss is a key indicator of the disease but body size is not the only predictor, people can have eating disorders and be of normal weight. It is therefore important to assess behaviours and attitudes rather than simply appearances, some warning signs to look out for include:
– Missing meals
– Excessive exercise
– The refusal to eat in public places
– The restriction of certain foods and food groups
– Withdrawing from social activities
– Making repeated claims that they have already eaten
– Repeatedly weighing oneself
– Complaining about being ‘fat’ despite being a normal weight
If you do think that you or someone close to you could be suffering from an eating disorder, it is best to get a doctor’s opinion as they can certifiably diagnose the disease.
Confidential BEAT Helpline: 0845 634 1414