Eating Disorder Warning Signs

• Significant weight loss or failure to gain expected weight as your child or adolescent grows.
• Large fluctuations in weight and eating habits.
• Obsessions and preoccupations with weight, food and dieting.
• Unusual eating habits, including refusal to eat certain foods or taking healthy eating to an extreme.
• Constant talk about feeling fat or being overweight despite weight loss.
• Anxiety about gaining weight or becoming fat.
• Development of food rituals or odd eating habits.
• Avoiding the family dinner table, citing reasons for not eating (already ate, will eat later, or not hungry).
• Exercising more than necessary for good health and being unable to miss a workout.
• Increasing isolation and avoiding social activities, especially when food is involved.
• Loss of menstrual period or needing hormones to sustain menses.
• If you're having trouble, consider talking to an intake staff member at the "HOPE" program about your worries.

Eating Disorder Quiz

Answer the following questions with Yes or No:

1. Have you lost a lot of weight?
2. Do you eat only certain foods for fear of gaining weight?
3. Are you spending a lot of time thinking about your body, weight, calories, food or dieting?
4. Have you developed ways of eating, such as rearranging food on your plate, excessive chewing or eating food in a certain order?
5. Do you talk to others about feeling fat?
6. Do you avoid mealtimes and eating?
7. Do you frequently weigh yourself?
8. Do you prefer to eat alone?
9. If someone asks you to eat something, do you say No, even if you know you should?
10. Do you wear baggy clothes or form-fitting clothing?
11. Do you exercise more than two hours per day so that you can burn off the calories from the food you have eaten?
12. Are you feeling moody, depressed or withdrawn on a regular basis?

If you answered Yes to three or more of these questions, you may have anorexia. Call us to find out more.

For information on the Outpatient Eating Disorder Program, call (510) 204-4569.

For information on the Inpatient Eating Disorder Program, call (510) 204-4405.