Eating disorders and exams

Exams at all levels of education can make people feel stressed and anxious. For people with eating disorders, or those at risk of developing one, exam season can be especially difficult, and may contribute to a worsening of symptoms, or an increase in disordered thoughts and behaviours.

This page explores some of the feelings and behaviours that stressful situations like exams can trigger, ways to manage stress and take care of your mental wellbeing before, during, and after the exam period, and what support may be available from your place of study.

If you’re supporting someone with an eating disorder during the exam season, we have some information and tips on how to support them on our 'Supporting someone during exams' page. And remember, if you’re worried about yourself, or someone you care about, our Helplines and support services are here for you.

How can exams affect people with eating disorders?

In the period before and during exams, you might find yourself or someone you know:

Eating more than usual to try to relieve stress.
Exercising more than usual to try to relieve stress.
Reduced appetite or skipping meals due to worry.
Forgetting to eat while studying, or deciding to miss meals to continue studying instead.
Withdrawing from important relationships.
Setting very high personal standards that are difficult to achieve.
Finding it hard to feel positive about the exams and what the future holds.
Focusing on fine details and struggling to look at the bigger picture.

Anyone can react to stress with changes to their eating and exercise habits, but for people with or at risk of eating disorders, , this can be particularly harmful. If you’re worried you or someone you know is developing an eating disorder or relapsing because of exam stress, seek support and treatment as soon as possible.

Anyone can react to stress with changes to their eating and exercise habits, but for people with eating disorders, or those who might be developing one, this can be particularly serious. If you’re worried you or someone you know is developing an eating disorder or relapsing because of exam stress, seek treatment as soon as possible.

If you have an eating disorder, you might find exams impact you by, for example:

Affecting your confidence.
Affecting your ability to concentrate.
Affecting flexible and “big picture” thinking, making it harder to prioritise.
Causing tiredness and/or making you struggle to sleep.
Preventing you from eating properly, meaning you don’t have the energy to study and focus.
Making you spend time you would like to spend studying on eating, exercising, or purging.
Conflicting with your studies or exams – for example, you might have an exam at a time when your eating disorder might usually compel you to exercise.

Managing your wellbeing during exams

You might have heard comments that seem to minimise the importance of exams. This might not always feel helpful, especially if your plans for your next steps depend on you getting certain exam results. It’s not that exams shouldn’t feel important to you, but that other things, including your wellbeing, are important too, and it’s healthy for you to make them a priority before and during your exams. Below are some ideas for how you can do this...

Tips to manage your wellbeing

Talk to people you trust

Let people know if there are things they can do to help during your exams. Anyone who is supporting you will want you to both do well and be healthy, and it isn’t imposing to ask them for help.

Friends could study with you or share resources like notes.
Family and friends could help you take breaks or have meals with you.
Your doctor could tell you about what food will help maintain your energy levels.
Your teachers or tutors could go over areas of study you’re unsure about.
Pastoral care at your place of study can advise you about any extra support availableYou could direct people to the guidance for anyone supporting someone with an eating disorder if they’re looking for ways to help.

Make sure you feel clear about what you need to do

This can help you to figure out what’s best to prioritise while studying, as well as highlight areas where you perhaps don’t have to worry so much. Teachers and tutors will also be able to help you prioritise. It might help to know:

The structure of each exam and the topics each exam covers.
How much of your final result each exam is worth, and how many marks you’ll need to get the results you’re looking for.
How much you need to learn to feel confident about each exam.

Think about how you’ll study best

Look at everything you intend to cover across your studying time, and how much time and energy it might require. This can help you avoid giving too much focus to some areas and not enough to others.
Many people find making a schedule helpful. You may want to plan your whole revision period, or you might find it easier to plan shorter time periods. You could try different things to see what’s best for you.
Plan your studying during the times you’ll work best. You might not feel your most productive in the morning and instead prefer to work in the afternoons, or it may be that by the evening you find yourself losing energy.
Include times where you can be flexible into your schedule – for example, if something is lower priority, make a note of this so you can drop it if you need time for something else, or add in free blocks where you can decide at the time what you want to study. Remember, it’s all about what works best for you!

Remember to prioritise yourself

It’s common for people to put pressure on themselves when they’ve got exams coming up, but people with eating disorders may especially find themselves doing this. Try to give yourself a break, both physically and mentally.
Consider what’s realistic. You can’t study to the best of your ability if you don’t get enough sleep, food, and time out from revision.
Put time to eat, sleep, take short breaks, and relax into your schedule too. This isn’t “slacking” or anything to feel guilty about – it’s good for your wellbeing and productivity. Be firm with yourself about this and ask others to help if you need it.
Remember, most exam guidance doesn’t consider the challenges an eating disorder presents, like lower energy and concentration, or time needed for ongoing treatment. You might find you don’t progress as quickly as others, or as quickly as you did before you were ill. This doesn’t mean you’re doing ‘badly’, just that you’re working in different circumstances.
The way eating disorders can make you feel can sometimes make small setbacks seem much bigger than they are. Pushing yourself harder can cause more issues, so if you’re worried, talk it through with someone you trust.
Practice self-kindness. Acknowledge that effort counts. Perfection isn’t the goal - doing your best is. Be proud of the effort you're making, even if things don’t go exactly as planned.

It’s important to prioritise self-care, and this looks different for everyone. It may take time to discover what works best for you. You can find more ideas and guidance on our self-help and self-care page.

Don’t compare yourself to others

It’s easy to compare yourself to others during exam time - how much they’re revising, how confident they seem, or how well they’re doing. But try to remind yourself that everyone is different, and that’s what makes each person unique.

Focus on what you need to feel prepared and supported. Just because someone else is doing things a certain way doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Trust your own pace and approach.

It’s also worth remembering that your friends might be dealing with exam stress too - even if they don’t show it. Just because someone seems calm on the outside doesn’t mean they’re not struggling. You might find it helpful to check in with friends and talk about how you’re feeling. Supporting each other can make exam season feel less isolating.

Organise your space

Getting everything ready beforehand can help you get started quickly and keep to your study plans.
Decide where you’ll study best, ensuring all your study resources are easily accessible.
If you work best to music, decide on what you might like to listen to in advance so you can just press play.
Make sure you have water within easy reach while you’re studying to ensure you stay hydrated.
If you do follow a schedule, set alerts or alarms in line with it– this will help remind you when you need to move on to something else, or, just as importantly, when you need to stop and have a break.

What your place of study can do

Reasonable adjustments

If you're experiencing difficulties during exams, your school, college, or university may be able — or even legally required — to make certain changes or offer additional support.

An eating disorder can be considered a disability under the Equality Act of 2010 depending on the effect it has on your daily life. This means your place of study should make any necessary changes to ensure you are being treated fairly and can complete your studies to the best of your ability. These are known as “reasonable adjustments”.

Examples of reasonable adjustments may include:

Extra time to complete exams or assignments
Taking exams in a private room
Using a laptop instead of writing by hand

To find out more, check your school or university’s website for details on how to arrange reasonable adjustments, or talk to a member of staff, such as a tutor, disability advisor, or student support officer.

Deferral

Sometimes, you might be too ill to take an exam - whether you know in advance or on the day. Depending on your circumstances, you could be allowed to take the exam later. This is called a deferral of assessment.

If you think you’ll need to miss an exam, let your place of study know as soon as you can and find out what the process is for deferral of assessment – it will vary, although you will probably need to get a doctor’s note.

Extenuating circumstances

If you feel your illness has seriously impacted your ability to complete your work, your place of study may consider you to be affected by “extenuating circumstances” – usually these are defined as circumstances that are sudden, unexpected, outside your control, and seriously disrupt your studies. If you’re struggling, speak to your school or university as soon as possible to find out what they can do for you.

Student support

All learning institutions should have some form of student support in place. If you’re at school, there may be dedicated pastoral services, but all teachers have a duty of care to you as a pupil. If you don’t have a student wellbeing service, talk to a member of staff you trust about how the school can support you, especially during the exam period.

If you’re at university, there are usually specific services to support your mental, physical, and academic wellbeing. These might include:

Mental health or academic advisors
Counselling services
Disability support services
University medical centre

Your university may also have created online resources, which could be useful if you don’t feel ready to speak to someone about how you feel.

You should be able to find information on your university’s website, but if you’re not sure, you can ask your representatives at your student union, who should be able to point you in the right direction.

Our Helpline is here for you. You can find details of the support we offer on our website.

After your exams

It’s completely normal to find yourself thinking a lot about your exams once they’re over - replaying how they went or worrying about the outcome. For some people, finishing something they’ve been very focused on, like exams, can affect their mental health or worsens eating disorder behaviours.

If you’re worried about this happening, it might help to prepare in advance. Here are a few things you might like to consider:

Make low-pressure plans for after your exams. You may not have the energy for anything big, but it could be as simple as picking a book to read or planning to spend time with friends. This way you’ll have an idea of what you’re doing after your exams, rather than finding yourself with nothing to focus on or distract you from thinking about how you’ve done.
Talk to someone: If you're concerned, let people know so they can check in with how you’re feeling and help you’re struggling with your eating disorder once your exams are over.
Consider arranging support after exams: If you’re attending therapy or counselling for your eating disorder, it might help to have an appointment shortly after you’ve finished your exams, if you won’t already be doing so, to talk about how you’re feeling.

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself about your results. Taking exams while managing a serious illness is incredibly difficult— and making it through is something to be proud of.

Exams can be daunting, but you can get through them, especially if you have the right support in place. We hope this page will help you think about practical ways to lower your stress and make the exam period easier, but if you need support, our Helpline is here for you.