Top 5 Indicators of an Eating Disorder in Teens
The number one thing I get asked as an Eating Disorders Expert is:
How do I know that my teen has a problem?
How do I know if my teen has an eating disorder or if they just have disordered eating?
After doing hundreds of consults and seeing countless patients, these are the top 5 criteria I look for.
Level of preoccupation with food and body.
This is the most singularly important thing I look for. I want to know how much time they spend thinking about food and their bodies daily. What percentage of their day do they spend thinking about food, bodies, and weight?
10%, 20, 40, 60, 75, or 90%?
I guarantee you that when someone has an eating disorder, they are spending over 80% of each and every day thinking about food and bodies. It is the musical score playing in the background of their day and everything else they do.
This criterion is more important to me than their weight.
This information allows me to understand how organized they are by food and body preoccupation and assess whether it is interfering with their lives.
Behavior change.
• Is your teen the person they have always been or have they changed?
• Does your teen who used to eat dinner with the family now eat alone?
• Do they insist on eating dinner earlier, before the rest of the family?
• Are they consumingly obsessed with grocery shopping?
• Do they need to see the restaurant menu before going out for dinner to figure out what they “can” eat?
• Do they insist on walking everywhere when they used to beg for Ubers and rides?
• Are they militantly trying bizarre diets and becoming vegan, gluten-free, paleo, and the list goes on?
Weight.
I want to know if there has been a significant change in weight.
Identify this very concretely.
If your teen has always been in the 50th percentile in weight, and suddenly they have dropped to the 25th percentile- this is something that we need to investigate. Do not let their pediatrician dismiss it.
A significant shift up or down from the percentile line they have always been on is an important data point reflecting that there may be a problem.
Mood.
Has your teen become someone you no longer recognize?
Are they irritable, isolated, and unable to reach?
Did they used to laugh easily or hang with their friends?
Yes- isolation and irritability are symptoms of all teens, but this is noticing extreme behavior.
Remember, part of an eating disorder is being hungry and anxious. Think about how you feel when you are hungry. Agitated, Hangry, preoccupied and tense. If your teen is hungry, they are not going to be themselves.
Pay attention if you no longer feel that you can communicate with your child and if they reject everything you have to say. If their mood swings are dramatic and seem unrelated to actual life events, this is a clue that there is something internal.
Instinct.
You are the expert on your teen. If you think something is going on with your teen and food you owe it to them, and to yourself to get it checked out.
Go to their pediatrician, ask for a referral for a therapist or a nutritionist who specializes in eating disorders.
Do not ignore your gut.
The sooner you say something, the sooner an intervention can happen. The quicker eating disorders are addressed, the more certainty there is that your teen can have a full and enduring recovery.
If you don’t know where to turn- DM us or email us: info@shelovpsychologygroup.com
We will send you in the right direction.
Get to KnowDr. Danielle Shelov
Dr. Shelov's therapeutic approach emphasizes understanding individuals within the context of their families, childhood experiences, relationships, and larger systems as crucial to psychological treatment.
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