Eating disorders (young people)

In this section you can find out about the experience of eating disorders in young people by seeing and hearing young people share their personal stories on film. Researchers travelled all around the UK to talk to 39 young people (10 men and 29 women) in their own homes. Find out what people said about issues such as realising something is wrong, therapy, body image and working towards recovery.  We hope you find the information helpful and reassuring.

You may also be interested in our young people’s section on depression and low mood, health and weight (which also includes eating disorder experiences) and self-harm: parents experiences (which also includes eating disorder experiences).

Triggering content
This website includes people describing their experiences of behaviour and thought patterns at the time when they were ill. Some people might find reading about these experiences distressing and we have included trigger warnings where necessary. All the material on this website is intended to support a better understanding of why these unhelpful behaviours in eating disorders happen, how to get help for them and to support genuine recovery from eating disorders. The site does not contain any triggering visual material, mention of weights, BMIs or calorie amounts.

This section is from research by the University of Oxford.

Supported by:
Comic Relief

Publication date: February 2013
Last updated: October 2018.