GP (General Practitioner)

Your GP

Your GP will be able to help with an initial diagnosis and should help to coordinate your treatment.  If they suspect you have an eating disorder, they should refer you to a local NHS eating disorder service.

Before you visit the GP, you might find it helpful to write down any questions you want to ask, the symptoms you’ve experienced or any behaviour that you’re worried about, so that you won’t feel put on the spot during the appointment. 

Your first appointment may involve talking with them about your eating habits, being weighed and having a blood test so that they can check your physical health. Try not to worry about this; they need to weigh you to monitor your health and to decide what type of treatment is best for you. If you don’t want to know your weight, you can ask to stand backwards on the scales and for them not to tell you the result.

It’s important to remember that GPs are not specialists in eating disorders so may not have all the answers and sometimes get it wrong.  Beat have a useful booklet about going to the GP with an eating disorder which you can download here.