I think my friend has an eating disorder - I'm worried

I have a friend who I think is bulimic, but I’m not positive

A lot of the time when she goes out to eat she’ll end up eating quite a bit for her size (4’10”, 18 years old), and complain that she feels sick and needs to throw up. We don't eat out too often - maybe once every week or so, and may once every two weeks she'll purge.

When she says she feels sicks, she claims that she can hold the vomit until we get home … which is around a 45 minute trip back to where we live. When we get back she’ll immediately go to the bathroom to vomit. I feel like a fool for even considering it possible for someone to do this, but I think I'd feel like a bigger fool for taking her aside and talking her though a problem that doesn't exist...

I don't know how often she purges when I'm not around, so I can't give much info there.

She also eats very rarely, and very little. On top of this, she’s a vegetarian, and pretty badly anemic – she has anemic macules (white spots), some of which are large and chronic.

On one occasion her hands suddenly went numb for around ten minutes while she was cooking. I’ve never heard of this happening before, but it truly scared me. It’s a really strange case and I don’t know what to make of it.

A long time friend of her has talked to me about it, and this friend’s concerns are the same as mine.

She refuses to go to a doctor – she’ll try to make small compromises to get around it if we try to force her to see one.

She’s admitted to me that she’s known how to make herself vomit since she was very young, which doesn’t help ease my suspicions.

I don’t know if the things I said here piece together, or whether none do, and I’m being paranoid, but it would be great if someone with a little more knowledge could help me out – I’m really worried about her. Is this possibly a 'mild case' of bulimia/binge eating, or should I consider it something serious?

Id strongly reccomend talking to her about it. Speculation wont get you anywhere.

If she says she has a problem, then you need to be supportive and work with her. She needs someone right now who can be strong for her.

Also I would reccomend getting her some kind of help, talk to her parents if you think they would be understanding.