TLDR:
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) is a self-report questionnaire to help diagnose eating disorders. You can take a portion of the questionnaire on our website to help you determine whether you need further assessment by a professional.
Have you ever wondered if the way you eat is serious enough to need treatment? We get this question all the time, and it's not always an easy answer. One way to know if your eating habits are problematic is how much they are interrupting your daily life. If eating or thinking about food and your body is causing problems or taking up too much time or mental energy, then it might be time to get help.
Another way to know if your eating habits are disordered is by taking a standardized questionnaire. Professionals have developed ways to measure the seriousness of eating disorders, and one test that we use in our practice is the Eating Attitudes Test, or EAT-26. We give this assessment to clients at intake so we can know how serious their struggles are.
What is the EAT-26 Quiz?
The first part of the test asks questions about your current weight and height, highest weight, and lowest weight. This helps us determine if the client has lost significant weight recently or if they are underweight. While weight doesn’t necessarily determine disordered eating, it’s still important to have a context for other eating behaviors.
The next part of the EAT-26 is a 26-question quiz about your relationship with food, your relationship with your body, and your relationship with exercise. It addresses behaviors of calorie counting, dieting, restricting, excessive exercise, bingeing, and purging. Putting these responses together helps determine whether your behaviors are concerning enough to warrant a professional assessment and diagnosis. We have this part of the quiz on our website so you can get immediate feedback about how serious your disordered eating is. Head over here to take it!
The last part of the EAT-26 asks questions about how often in the last 6 months you have:
Gone on binges where you feel that you may not be able to stop
Ever made yourself sick (vomited) to control your weight or shape
Ever used laxatives, diet pills, or diuretics (water pills) to control your weight or shape
Exercised more than 60 minutes a day to lose weight.
The more often you engage in these behaviors, the more likely you have an eating disorder. The EAT-26 also asks whether you have lost 20 pounds or more in the last 6 months. Significant weight loss--even if you are still at a normal weight or higher!--is a serious eating disorder symptom. Remember, you can’t tell if someone has an eating disorder just by looking at their body.
What to do after taking the EAT-26 Quiz
Even after taking the EAT-26 questionnaire, you still cannot diagnose yourself with an eating disorder. Leave that up to a qualified mental health professional like the therapists at Reflect Wholeness Therapy!
We can offer a bit of clarity for you right now, though: If you are worried enough about your relationship with food that you are trying to diagnose yourself on the internet, it may be time to get professional help. Even if you don't meet the full criteria for an eating disorder diagnosis, your relationship with food or your body is clearly causing some concerns that could be alleviated through therapy before they become more problematic.
For more information on the EAT-26, click here.
Contact us to schedule an assessment today.
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