Anorexia Nervosa Test (Eating Attitudes Screening)
A confidential self-assessment of eating attitudes informed by the EAT-26, the SCOFF, and the DSM-5 criteria for anorexia nervosa. You get an instant, supportive, plain-language result across restriction, fear of weight gain, and body image, plus a professional PDF report you can keep or bring to a clinician.
Anorexia Nervosa Test (Eating Attitudes Screening) is a free, confidential 15-question self-assessment, informed by the EAT-26 and SCOFF. It takes about 5 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus a downloadable PDF report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
The three threads that define anorexia, looked at together
Anorexia nervosa is not defined by a number on a scale. Clinicians look for three things moving together: restriction of food, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted experience of one's own body. This screening looks at all three.
Restriction
Skipped meals, shrinking portions, rigid food rules, and eating noticeably less than your body needs. Five items on the behaviors that narrow what and how much you eat.
Fear of weight gain
The intense fear of gaining weight that drives restriction, including anxiety around fullness, compensating for eating, and a fear that doesn't ease even as weight falls. Five items.
Body image
How you see and judge your body: believing you are bigger than others say, constant checking and comparing, and self-worth that rises and falls with shape and weight. Five items.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Grounded in validated instruments | Sometimes | Yes, EAT-26 and SCOFF informed |
| Covers all three DSM-5 threads | Rarely | Restriction / fear / body image |
| Honest about being a screener | Vague labels | Yes, clearly explained |
| Supportive, non-triggering framing | Often clinical | Yes, trauma-informed |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, clinician reviewed |
| Downloadable PDF report | No | Yes, branded & shareable |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–45 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Few signs on this screening | Your answers show few of the attitudes this screening covers. That is reassuring on this measure, though no screening captures everything. |
| 11–22 | Some signs worth attention | Your answers show a meaningful presence of restriction, fear of weight gain, or body image distress. This is a pattern worth taking seriously now, while it is easier to change. |
| 23–45 | Significant signs, please reach out | Your answers show a strong pattern of restriction, fear, and body image distress. Carrying this is exhausting, and you should not have to carry it alone. Professional support is the right next step. |
Methodology & sources
This is an educational screener, not a reproduction of a single validated instrument. Its fifteen items were written to cover the three threads that define anorexia nervosa in the DSM-5: restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and disturbance in how one's body weight or shape is experienced. The item content is informed by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner et al., 1982), the most widely used eating attitudes screen, and by the SCOFF questionnaire (Morgan, Reid & Lacey, 1999), a brief clinician screen, with each statement rated on a 0 to 3 frequency scale for a total of 0 to 45.
Because this screener is not a validated instrument, its bands are educational guides rather than clinical cutoffs: lower totals suggest few of the attitudes the screener covers, middle totals a pattern worth attention, and higher totals a pattern that warrants professional assessment. It cannot weigh you, examine you, or establish a diagnosis, and anorexia in particular has medical dimensions that only a clinician can assess. If your answers or your relationship with food concern you, please treat that as reason enough to talk with a doctor or an eating-disorder specialist, whatever your score.
References
- Garner DM, Olmsted MP, Bohr Y, Garfinkel PE. The Eating Attitudes Test: psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychol Med. 1982;12(4):871–878. doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700049163
- Morgan JF, Reid F, Lacey JH. The SCOFF questionnaire: assessment of a new screening tool for eating disorders. BMJ. 1999;319(7223):1467–1468. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7223.1467
- Arcelus J, Mitchell AJ, Wales J, Nielsen S. Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders: a meta-analysis of 36 studies. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68(7):724–731. doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74
- American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2013.
Anorexia Nervosa Test (Eating Attitudes Screening) FAQ
What is anorexia nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder defined by three things moving together: restricting food to significantly less than the body needs, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbed experience of one's own body weight or shape. It affects people of every gender, age, and background, and contrary to stereotype, you cannot tell whether someone has it by looking at them.
Is this an official anorexia diagnosis test?
No, and no online test can be. This is an educational screener informed by validated instruments, built for self-reflection. Diagnosing anorexia requires a clinical assessment, including medical evaluation, that only a licensed professional can do. What this screening can do is help you put words to your experience and decide whether a fuller conversation is worthwhile.
Why is early help so important with anorexia?
Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental health condition, largely through medical complications and suicide, which is a hard fact worth knowing alongside a hopeful one: treatment works, and the earlier it starts, the better the outcomes tend to be. Reaching out at the first signs, before the pattern hardens, genuinely changes trajectories. If this screening prompted you to consider it, that is the result doing its job.
Can you have anorexia without being underweight?
Yes. The DSM-5 recognizes atypical anorexia, where all the psychological features are present, restriction, fear of weight gain, and body image disturbance, without a low body weight. It is just as serious and carries many of the same medical risks. Weight alone is never the measure of whether someone deserves help.
Is the test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your answers are never sent to a server, never stored, and never linked to you. No account is needed, and the optional PDF is generated on your own device.
What if my concerns are more about bingeing or purging?
Eating disorders overlap, and many people move between patterns over time. If episodes of eating large amounts with a feeling of lost control sound more familiar, our binge eating disorder test may fit better; if a binge-and-compensate cycle does, our bulimia test looks at that directly; and our general eating disorder test based on the SCOFF is a quick starting point covering the common warning signs.
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