There are many hundreds of different eating disorders, but I will sum up two well known ones.
The Basics: This is where a person becomes obsessive in thinking they are fat, which in most cases they aren't. It's more common in girls, usually because they feel they have to look a ceratin way, or because of a hobby/job e.g. modelling or dancing. The person stops eating and can become quite secretive about it too - for example making excuses about skipping meals, pushing food around on their plate to look as if they've eaten something etc.
How can you tell if someone's got anorexia?: It's impossible to say for certain if you have no experience of these things. The person may be going through a traumatic time in their life (e.g. a death) and may have not felt like eating much because of that. However, try to watch the person around meal times and see if they make excuses, or are constantly talking about how fat they look, how they should eat less etc.
What can I do about it?: If it's a friend, try and help them out. Ask them about it directly or bring the subject up in a subtle way. Try not to anger or intimidate your friend...it's not going to do a lot of good. If you can't make them talk about it, tell a responsible adult or someone you trust. Don't go and tell lots of people - that's evil. Make sure you do something about it!
The Basics: This is where a person becomes obsessive in thinking they are fat - again which in most cases they aren't, but unlike anorexia, this is where people make themselves sick after meals. It's pretty similar to anorexia in many ways, but in some ways it's much more obvious. It could also be seen as 'worse' in some ways, because as well as screwing up your whole body, making yourself vomit isn't exactly good for you - many models who were bulimic have false teeth because the vomit rotted their teeth. That's pretty disgusting :(
How can you tell if someone's got bulimia?: For one thing, they should be sneaking around after meals or you may hear them being sick a lot. Those are quite obvious things though.
Interested in finding out more? Check the following links:
Medainc.org
Anada.org
NationalEatingDisorders.org
If anyone's got any past experiences or anything to add to this page, I'd love to hear from you seeing as I don't know that much myself. I'll keep it anonymous if you wish :) You can e-mail me here.
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