Do I have a problem with anorexia?

Understanding and admitting that you have a problem with anorexia is the first big step towards seeking help, finding appropriate treatment and getting your life back. This is, in itself, an important milestone, and we understand how difficult it can be.

The symptoms of anorexia are largely focused around unhealthy eating patterns and distorted body image. When considering your current eating habits, self-esteem and lifestyle choices, do any of these issues apply to you?

Eating patterns

• You are preoccupied with the fat and calorie content of your food.
• You constantly count calories and usually set yourself a restriction on the amount of calories you eat each day.
• You obsessively check labels on foods and weigh out your food portions.
• Your diet is very controlled even though you are thin. You have a list of foods that you won’t allow yourself to eat - for example, foods rich in carbohydrates, fat or sugar; and ‘safe’ foods that you will allow yourself to eat - for example, foods that are very low in fat, carbohydrates, sugar – and therefore calories.
• You have told others that you are wheat intolerant, lactose intolerant or even vegetarian, so that you could exclude more foods and calories from your meals.
• A great deal of your time is spent thinking about food and yet you eat a very small amount. You prefer to cook for your friends or family and enjoy reading about food, collecting recipes or menu planning.
• You feel compelled to carry out secret rituals when you eat – for example, how you cut your food, chewing it a certain number of times, eating from a particular plate or chewing your food and then spitting it out.
• You regularly avoid eating and conceal this from those around you – for example, by hiding or throwing your food away. You may make excuses to avoid meals such as “I’m not feeling very well.”, “I’ve already eaten a big meal.” or “I’m not hungry.”

Social

• You are doing less of the things that were important to you - for example, seeing friends or family, going out or enjoying hobbies.
• You have missed family birthdays or meeting up with friends because you knew you wouldn’t be able to avoid eating or that you would have to eat in front of others.
• Your relationships are suffering as a result of your difficulty around eating – your partner is dissatisfied with your relationship and you are spending less time with valued friends.

Body image

• Are you terrified of putting on weight?
• Do you feel fat or that certain parts of your body are ‘too fat’ – for example, your stomach, thighs or hips – even though you are underweight?
• Have you experienced dramatic weight loss over a short time period - with no medical reasons for this?
• Do you obsess about your clothing size, your weight and the shape of your body? Do You monitor your weight very closely – weighing yourself frequently and worrying if your weight goes up by even the tiniest amount?
• Do you feel that you’ll never be slim enough? Does this frustrate you?
• Do you exercise, often excessively, to ensure you burn off the day’s calories?
• Were you overweight as a child? Did you decide to get fit, but cannot stop yourself from exercising now?
• Do you refuse to acknowledge that your body weight is low enough to be a problem – but hide it from those around you by wearing loose or baggy clothes, or drinking lots of water just before you are weighed?
• Are there aspects of your physical appearance that you really dislike?
• Do you focus more on what you dislike about your physical appearance than on what you like?
• Do you spend a lot of time worrying about what others think about your physical appearance?
• Do you believe your looks determine your self-worth?
• Do negative thoughts about your body keep repeating in your head?
• Do you avoid certain social situations or activities because of how you feel about your body?
• Do you spend a lot of time, effort or money trying to 'correct' your body?
• Do you rely on clothes or make-up to cover up your perceived flaws?
• Are you continually searching for the ultimate diet, exercise regime, clothes, make-up or hair-cut?
• Do your thoughts and feelings about how you look affect how you feel about yourself?
• Do you have difficulty accepting your body as it is?

If you can relate to any of these, it may be time for you to get help to deal with your anorexia.

At Life Works, we believe that anorexia has become a problem when you continue to avoid eating in spite of negative consequences – whether they are health, relationship, professional, financial, legal or other problems.

As a leading private behavioural health clinic for the treatment of anorexia, Life Works is able to help you.

If you need help or advice about your anorexia, please call us on 0800 081 0700 to speak to one of our counsellors in confidence or email us for more information.

We can answer any questions or concerns you may have, and help you find the right treatment.

Not sure if you have a problem?

Denial is common and symptomatic of anorexia, so you may deny that you have a problem both to yourself and to others, through:

• minimising the impact of your low body weight on your health
• criticising those around you for making too much fuss about your eating habits
• concealing your anorexia from your loved ones
• considerably overestimating your body size
• placing the blame for your disordered eating on other people or situations in your life, such as “I can’t eat because my job is so stressful.”

It is worth considering why you feel the need to do any of these things if you don’t have an issue with food. It is likely that you have a problem with anorexia but you are not ready to admit this to yourself or to anyone else.

Why admitting you have a problem can be so hard

Denial is a key characteristic of anorexia. It is one of the few illnesses which perpetuates itself, as one of the symptoms of anorexia is that it tells you that you don’t have a problem. This is one of the reasons that many individuals stay trapped with anorexia for a lifetime. We advise you to stay open to the feedback from friends, family and professionals, and look at the evidence.

Why it is so important to get help

At Life Works, we know that anorexia is an illness. This is central to our clinical philosophy and underpins our approach to treatment. We use the latest neuroscientific thinking to inform our understanding of how problems with anorexia affect the individual and how we can provide effective treatment of these problems.

Having anorexia means that you have an illness which affects different parts of the brain and seriously impairs your ability to make choices. This means that over time, your decision-making ability and your behaviour become increasingly focused on your eating habits, to the detriment of everything else in your life – your partner, your job, your family and your friends. Food – and the avoidance of eating it - becomes your number one priority. You may have done things that you feel deeply ashamed about but you couldn’t avoid doing them because you felt compelled to restrict your food intake.

Feeling ashamed or guilty about your behaviour can be incredibly difficult and often increases your need to restrict your food intake, if only to help you feel better. But the satisfaction or relief you feel each time becomes more and more short-lived and, over time, this will worsen the problem for you, increasingly isolate you from those who care about you and leave you with feelings of loneliness, fear and desperation. Some individuals with anorexia also feel compelled to self-harm. Sadly, many individuals do not ask for help when they really need it, to the extent that their anorexia worsens to the point of crisis - medically, physically and emotionally.

Is it really a problem?

Anorexia is a progressive, life-threatening, psychiatric illness. If left untreated, it causes serious long term health problems – for example, infertility, osteoporosis, hair loss, heart problems, kidney failure and stunted growth. Other effects of anorexia include severe mood swings, depression and suicidal thoughts.

In some cases, individuals with anorexia die. This is not uncommon, and anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any eating disorder.

Being in this situation can be terrifying, exhausting, depressing, upsetting and deeply shaming. The future may seem totally bleak and pointless, and the only thing that seems to make you feel better is being able to restrict your food intake and losing weight.

What is recovery?

There are many misconceptions about what being “in recovery” means. Recovery is commonly misunderstood, especially by people who have not received treatment and also among their friends and families.

At Life Works, we truly understand that the prospect of recovery can seem frightening. You may believe that recovery offers you nothing but a lifetime of having to eat more, having a greater body weight than you are comfortable with, having to live with your own problems, frustrations and feelings without even feeling that you have control over your weight. Imagining your life like this may seem incredibly daunting and overwhelming. Faced with a choice between your life as it is, or recovery, it is understandable why you may have reservations about recovery. 

However, by finding the strength to seek professional help, you will get the support and guidance you need to start reaping the benefits of the first stage of recovery.

We believe recovery is about so much more than eating well. We define recovery as getting your life back, especially those aspects that are valuable and precious to you. It also means putting more into your life than you may have previously and finding meaning either once again, or for the first time ever. Recovery means creating a healthy, fulfilling and meaningful life that is characterised by healthy eating habits, more effective tools for coping with the stresses of life, and a greater connection with yourself, those close to you and the larger community.

At Life Works, we strongly believe that recovery is not about what you are taking out of your life, but rather what you put back into it. Disordered eating is a disease of isolation and the life of someone with disordered eating tends to get smaller and smaller. Recovery is about expanding and enhancing your life.
By taking that first step and receiving treatment for your disordered eating at Life Works, you will be able to start leading the new life you deserve.

How can Life Works help you get treatment.

Life Works is a leading private behavioural health clinic for the treatment of disordered eating.

If you need help or advice about your problem with disordered eating, please call us on 0800 081 0700 to speak to one of our counsellors in confidence or email us for more information.

We can answer any questions or concerns you may have and help you find the right treatment.