Adult Guides
Eating difficulties do not end in childhood, and they are not only about weight. These guides are written for adults navigating food, eating and recovery — and for the people alongside them.
Understanding ARFID
What ARFID is, the ways it presents, what it can mean for your health and everyday life, and what support looks like.
Your guide to an ARFID diagnosis
What ARFID is, how it differs from other eating difficulties, and why assessment is worth considering.
Eating out, work and social life
Navigating restaurants, workplaces and other people’s expectations without dread.
In preparationKeeping nutrition adequate
How to protect intake within a limited range, and which nutrients need most attention.
In preparationWhat to expect from an assessment
What happens, what is asked, and what you leave with.
In preparationNutritional rehabilitation explained
What refeeding involves, why it is monitored, and what to expect week by week.
In preparationRebuilding a relationship with food
Moving beyond rules and restriction towards eating that feels ordinary again.
In preparationUnderstanding binge eating
Why it happens, what maintains it, and what genuinely helps.
In preparationSupporting an adult you love
What to say, what to avoid, and how to look after yourself while you do it.
In preparationThose marked in preparation are being drafted.
Urgent support
Eating disorders and difficulties with eating can sometimes become medically or psychologically serious. This service provides planned outpatient dietetic care and is not an emergency or crisis service. Enquiry messages are not monitored outside working hours. If you need help now, please use the routes below rather than waiting for a reply.
Please seek urgent medical help if you or someone you are supporting is experiencing:
- Fainting, collapse or loss of consciousness
- Chest pain, difficulty breathing, or a very slow, very fast or irregular heartbeat
- Severe dizziness, weakness, confusion or difficulty staying awake
- Severe dehydration, inability to keep fluids down or persistent vomiting
- Seizures
- Blood in vomit or significant gastrointestinal bleeding
- A rapid or significant reduction in food or fluid intake
- Rapidly deteriorating physical health
- Severe malnutrition or signs of medical instability, regardless of weight
- Thoughts of suicide or self-harm, or feeling unable to keep yourself or someone else safe
- Suspected or diagnosed anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, ARFID or another eating disorder alongside signs of acute physical or psychological deterioration
For severe or life-threatening symptoms, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E.
For urgent medical advice, contact your GP urgently. Outside surgery hours in England, Scotland and Wales, call 111.
For an urgent mental health crisis in England and Scotland, call 111 and choose the mental health option. In Wales, call 111 and press option 2. These lines are open at any hour, for any age, and a parent or carer can call on a child’s behalf. In Northern Ireland, call Lifeline on 0808 808 8000.
You do not need to have a diagnosed eating disorder, or be at a particular weight or BMI, for symptoms to require urgent medical assessment.
For information and support, Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, runs a helpline on 0808 801 0677 in England, open 3pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, with separate numbers for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Samaritans is open at any hour on 116 123, and Childline on 0800 1111 is there for children and young people. None of these replaces urgent medical assessment.
A guide is a starting point,
not a substitute for assessment
or treatment.
You do not need a diagnosis, or a referral, to ask whether specialist support would help.
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