'Anyone can be affected. No question'

Wednesday 27 February 2019

During Eating Disorder Awareness Week a national charity is working with local patients as they continue their recoveries.

Beat offers support to those suffering from a variety of conditions which include anorexia, binge eating, orthorexia and others.

The charity says eating disorders are 'complex mental illnesses' which can affect anyone, 'no matter what their age, gender, or background'.

Beat also says there’s no single cause and people might not have all symptoms for any one eating disorder meaning many people are diagnosed with “other specified feeding or eating disorder” (OSFED), which means that their symptoms don’t exactly match what doctors check for to diagnose binge eating disorder, anorexia, or bulimia.

The charity says that doesn’t mean that it’s not still very serious and this week is aimed at putting the real stories of people with eating disorders in the spotlight.

Pictured: Beat charity is raising awareness of eating disorders this week. 

One young woman sharing her story is mental health campaigner Emily Nuttal, who regularly speaks out on issues affecting herself and friends in Guernsey.

Ms Nuttal is recovering from an eating disorder but says she often struggles to keep on top of it, which is common among fellow suffers.

Ms Nuttal says one good thing which has come out of the work of charities like Beat is increased awareness of different eating disorders and how they affect individuals.

"One of the symptoms of eating disorders is weight - whether that's anorexia and underweight or binge eating where you might show signs of being overweight - so there's that perception that with eating disorders you've got to look really skinny, or not, before people believe that you have a problem."

Ms Nuttal said those perceptions do persist in some areas and that can cause ongoing problems for people wanting help to recover from their eating disorder.

"Obviously anorexia is a psychological illness so you can have someone with all of the symptoms of anorexia but their weight is not at the criteria set by health officials for treatment to begin. Then you don't get the support you need.

"There's not a lot spoken about it either, and I think its so important to talk about it because in my own experience you try and hide it and the more you can hide it the bigger the problem gets. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets."

Pictured:Mental Health Campaigner, Emily Nuttall. 

Ms Nuttall has benefitted from the help provided by Beat , which includes manned helplines 365 days a year, including over Christmas.

"That's a really important resources," she said. "A lot of people are ashamed to talk to people, because eating disorders are so secretive and you're doing your damnedest to hide it because you don't want to lose that control.

"A lot of eating disorders do come down to control, it gives you control over that aspect of your life."