I think my friend may have or may be developing an eating disorder. Help?

Question

I just spent two weeks with my best friend in Europe and she said some things that scared me. First of all, I have known her for 10 years (we are 17 now) and she has always been very thin, but not too thin. It appears she has always had a healthy body image and as far as I know and can tell, she has never worried about her weight.

But on our trip for the first few days she hardly ate anything at all. She said she wasn't feeling good, and I believe her. But a few days later she said she needed to loose weight from all over because she was getting fat. Then a few days after that she had an ice cream and said in a very serious way, "What if I threw this up? Then I could taste it but not have to get fat from it." I told her very firmly that she was not going to do that and later that night I tried to talk with her about it but she just got mad.

But there are also times when she eats a lot and I don't think she throws it up because it may be hours before she goes to a bathroom.

There are days when she hardly eats a thing, and then other days when she eats a lot. It just really concerns me that she talked about throwing it up and I don't know what to do.

I'm planning to talk with her mom (I have tried a number of times to talk with my friend, but she gets mad and changes the subject) but I would like some opinions about why there are days when she eats a lot. If she feels fat, as she has said she does, then why would she eat so much sometimes? And as I said, she might not even go to the bathroom or be alone for hours after, so I don't really think she then throws it up.

It's just conflicting: She says she's fat and needs to loose weight and talks about throwing up her food, but then she will eat two ice cream cones within an hour.

Can someone give me some advice?

Answer 1

Tell her mom. You are only doing her good. you might also want to go to http://www.geocities.com/helpprob for advice on how to help her.