Warning Signs of Anorexia

---Dramatic weight loss

---Refusal to maintain normal body weight

---Disturbed sense of body, misperception of shape or size

---Frequent statements about being "fat" or "feeling fat" when not overweight or especially despite weight loss

---Anxiety about gaining weight or being "fat"

---Viewing weight loss as an impressive achievement that is a sign of extraordinary self discipline

---Viewing weight gain as an unacceptable failure of self control

---Preoccupation with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting

---Excessive weighing of self or measuring of body parts

---Persistently using a mirror to check body parts

---Refusal to eat or to eat certain categories of foods, such as carbohydrates

---Denial of hunger

---Development of rituals around eating, such as excessive chewing, eating food in certain order, counting bites

---Consistent excuses to avoid meals or situations involving food

---Concerns about eating in public

---Excessive, rigid exercise program, the desperate need to burn off calories after eating

---Withdrawal from usual friends or activities

---Increasing focus on food and weight and diet so much that this a primary part of life

---Refusal to talk about eating behaviors or defensiveness or anger at the topic being brought up

---Development of depression, social withdrawal, irritability, insomnia and if sexually active, a reduced sex drive

---Menstruation stops

---Complaints of constipation, abdominal pain, cold intolerance

---Dryness of skin