 In today's video I'm going to share with you 10 warning signs that might indicate that someone is developing an eating disorder. If you spot a combination of these signs then it's time to be worried and offer your support to the person that you're concerned about or raise the alarm with a trusted adult in their life. Number one, weight change. Note that I don't say weight loss. We might see weight loss but equally we might see weight gain or we might see someone whose weight is fluctuating over time. You can have an eating disorder at absolutely any weight and it's worth bearing in mind that majority of people who have a diagnosable eating disorder will actually have a healthy or overweight. So this stereotype of eating disorders always being about underweight is wrong. Of course if we notice that someone has lost a significant amount of weight, whether that still keeps them within a healthy range or whether they're significantly underweight then that is potentially a cause for concern but equally we might see someone who is gaining weight or we might see someone whose weight is fluctuating. Some eating disorders don't have a significant impact on someone's weight and we might not pick that up as a warning sign so don't feel that if you're seeing the other warning signs you don't notice a change in weight that you shouldn't be concerned. One of the times when we might pick up on weight change is those of us who work with children in school. After a holiday sometimes we might notice that children have gained a significant amount of weight or lost a significant amount of weight. It's the kind of thing that parents might not pick up on because they see their kids every day but as their teacher or someone who works with them in a youth setting we might notice those changes after we've not seen them for a while so it's a really good one to look out for. Number two is if we find that someone has adopted a new diet or exercise regime. Okay so everybody might do that from time to time and it's not necessarily a sign of an eating disorder but where we need to be concerned is where this person is really adhering strongly to that diet or that exercise where they're perhaps taking it further than their peers where they don't allow themselves a day off from it. We might kind of feel like that behavior that diet that exercise is controlling them rather than them controlling it so diet and exercise is one to look out for. Number three is linked to number two and this is where we place a big emphasis on our self-evaluation linked into goals around diet, exercise, weight, muscle gain that kind of thing. This will be someone who will really beat themselves up to quite an extreme degree when they don't meet their self-imposed targets around diet, around weight, around calorie intake whatever it might be for them. It will often be that they will feel like they're a complete abject failure if they gain a small amount of weight or they don't manage to do the exercise that they feel they should have done and they will do this to a more extreme degree than peers might do and it might be something that it's quite hard to reason with them on. Number four is if we find someone begins to feel sort of increasingly withdrawn or isolated, someone who might be sort of pushing their friends away and becoming less engaged with activities. This can happen for a range of different reasons. One is because we might be trying to hide different behaviors so for example if we got purging or binging behaviors going on we might be wanting to do that in secret, we might be ashamed or guilty about what we're doing and not want to worry other people as well. Also it can be that we become very sort of obsessed with these different thoughts that are going around in our head and we find it harder to identify with those around us because our thoughts are revolving around food and weight and calorie intakes and lots of complex calculations around that and our friends are talking about you know the latest music that they're into or what was on TV or something like that and we just begin to feel a bit of a distance from them and emotional and social distance so we might begin to withdraw. Also alongside sort of eating disorder thoughts and feelings can come feelings of sort of low self-worth really low self-esteem, lots of feelings around anxiety and social anxiety as well so again we might find that they begin to feel more isolated. Number five, if somebody tries to avoid being in situations where they would get changed in front of other people so they might be doing things like skipping PE, you might find they don't want to join in with stuff like swimming where they wouldn't have so many clothes on or they might stop going to sleepovers at friend's house or they might not want to go shopping when they might have to get changed in changing rooms. This can be for a couple of reasons. One can be because they feel so ashamed about their body, their body image might be really really poor and so they're avoiding situations where other people see their body. It can also be about trying to mask weight gain or weight loss. The other thing is that in about a quarter of people who struggle with an eating disorder there are also other forms of self-harm and self-injury going on and they might be trying to hide that as well so it can be about hiding as well as not wanting to change in front of other people. We sometimes find that some people will put on lots and lots of layers of different clothing or they'll kind of change their clothing style into sort of baggier clothes. This can be about masking weight gain or weight loss. It can be because somebody's got really poor body image and low self esteem and they don't want other people to see their body. Sometimes it's just from the practical point of view that if we've lost a lot of weight even on a warm day we can feel really, really cold so we might put lots of layers of clothes on in order to feel warm enough. So that's something worth looking out for too. Number six is that as well as not wanting to change in front of other people you might find that someone with an eating disorder is really reluctant to eat or drink in front of other people. Often there can be lots and lots of anxiety around food and we can get really sort of ritualistic behaviors and we don't want to do that in front of other people but also we often feel very, very guilty every time that we eat and we think other people are judging us. There's lots of really, really complex stuff basically that comes with eating and drinking when you've got an eating disorder or you've got eating disorder thoughts and feelings and so we might try increasingly not to do that around other people. Something that it's also worth looking out for is if you've got somebody who you know who when you see them eat they seem to eat really healthily and yet you're seeing their weight is still gradually increasing over time and it doesn't really feel in line with perhaps the diet and the exercise that you see them kind of partaking in. That can be an indicator that perhaps they're secretly binging. What we find sometimes is that people who become overweight as a result of binge eating or emotional overeating will try really, really hard to take the appropriate steps to take control of their weight and they might eat really healthily and try to engage in exercise in order to try and control that but actually they can be overcome with the urge to binge and do that in secret so that can sometimes explain why we're seeing this weight gain even when it doesn't really seem to make sense with what we're actually observing in terms of their eating and exercise. Number seven is if you are able to talk to someone about their eating and either it seems like they're really, really in control of it and this is something they've trying really, really hard to control or they talk about feeling completely out of control so the control around food is a really key one to look out for so with some eating disorders we get very ritualistic behaviors and the idea of really controlling what we're eating even though it often gets to a point where you feel like you're in control of your eating and your food but actually it's got to the point where the eating disorder is really controlling you but you know there's this real feeling of control of ritual of that sort of thing but then on the other hand with things like binge eating then we often find that people will say actually they feel completely out of control that they feel that that's done almost on an automatic pilot it's like someone's pressing a remote and making them do it and they don't feel like there's anything at all that they can do to stop that process once it started so thinking about control around food either extreme, complete over control or complete lack of control these are both potential causes for concern. Number eight, eight, eight, number eight kind of links to that control and that is if you see someone having really ritualistic behaviors around food so perhaps they're only eating certain food types perhaps they always want to eat with particular cutlery definitely one I'm guilty of so really ritualistic behavior around food is something that may be a cause for concern. Number nine, if you become aware of any form of purging or weight control so this might be someone who is using diet supplements it might be someone who is abusing laxatives it might be someone who is making themselves sick there's all sorts of different methods that people might have for this but essentially where people are trying to compensate for the calories that they take on board through compensatory behaviors of any kind so any kind of purging that you become aware of you might not necessarily know that someone is purging but if for example always after a meal time they immediately disappear to the toilet that could be a sign that they're purging or they've just eaten so that's something to be aware of. And finally number 10 is any sort of strange or unusual behavior around food now this can cover a whole gamut of different things but for example sometimes we find that people will steal food that might be that perhaps they've got bulimia or binge eating disorder and they need to eat in large quantities and they can't get hold of enough food so we might find that they're stealing food that can happen sometimes. That can also get tied in sometimes when people have formed an attachment to food rather than to people this is the sort of behavior we sometimes might see in our looked after or previously looked after children for example so stealing food can be an indicator that something isn't quite as we would hope here and this might be someone who needs support. Hording food is another one and also hiding food is another indicator. The other thing you might find sometimes is lots and lots of wrappers which might be indicative of a binge that has happened. Any kind of unusual behavior around food so our stealing, our hiding, our hoarding all these sorts of different behaviors again they might just begin to ring alarm bells. So maybe this has rung some alarm bells for you maybe you've spotted some of these warning signs in someone that you care about. If that is the case the most important thing that you can do is actually just to sit down and provide them with a non-judgmental space where you listen to them and then you think together about the next steps. If you're not the right person to do that or you don't feel confident doing it then have a think about who else might be an appropriate person to offer some supportive listening to the person that you're concerned about. Remember you won't see all of these warning signs in anyone and actually some people work really, really hard to hide the warning signs. So neither look for all 10 warning signs nor think if someone's only really ticking kind of one or two and you're not quite sure that doesn't necessarily mean there's no cause for concern. I always kind of go by the rule of thumb that if your gut says there's something not quite right here it's always worth taking the time to stop and listen. The worst thing that can happen in that scenario is you end up having a really reassuring conversation and the person that you're worried about knows that you care. Actually though what will often happen is that perhaps they will begin to open up and they'll realize that you're there to listen to them and perhaps this is the beginning of those conversations. It's not easy, I fully appreciate that and it won't always go really, really well as you'd hope. So be prepared to persevere but remember the worst thing you can do in this situation is nothing at all. I hope it was helpful. It would be great if you can share any additional warning signs you think we should have included below and also let me know what other future videos you would like me to be making. Thank you to everyone for your great feedback on the historic videos. I am continuing to try and upload on a Tuesday and a Friday. If you have suggestions of future videos let me know and it'd be great if you could subscribe. I am trying, it's a big target but I'm trying to get to 10,000 subscribers because once I get there, I can start using the YouTube space in London and how cool would that be. Cool, thank you so much and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.