On the 27th of Feb-5th March 2023, it is Eating Disorder Awareness Week. My friends and I are raising money for Beat the UK Eating Disorder Charity and we need your help! We are going to be doing a personal challenge every day to challenge my eating disorder for the whole week!

My Story:

My name is Chloe and I am 18 years old and in recovery from Anorexia Nervosa. I have suffered with my Eating Disorder for 4 years now and I want to raise awareness of the significance GPs have in the role of spotting early warning signs of Eating Disorders and ensuring patients receive the treatment they deserve and need. When I first saw my GP, my weight was still classified as ‘healthy’, my struggles and all the concerns my friends, teachers, and family had about me were dismissed. This resulted in me not receiving the treatment I needed at the time. After that appointment, it gravely empowered my eating disorder, and all the thoughts I was having were just confirmed as reality - “I wasn’t sick enough”, “I don’t deserve help”, “I don’t need help”, “I’m not skinny enough”…    My eating disorder gained strength and I left the surgery on a path to deeper self-destruction. It was only when my weight dropped too low and my body was starting to give up on me was when I got the help I actually needed 2 years ago. 

If I had received the right treatment when I first presented at my GP practice, I’m certain that my story would be a lot different. However, I cannot turn back time but what I can do is use my voice to prevent it from happening to others. The actions taken by health professionals in the early onset of an Eating Disorder are so incredibly significant to a person’s recovery and I want better outcomes for future patients.

11 months ago I wrote a letter to my GP to talk about my eating disorder and how significant their role is in saving a person's life from a very severe, debilitating mental illness. I wrote it with the intention of pushing my GP practice to get essential training on eating disorders to improve the standard of care for others who may present the same way as I did and in the future ensure early intervention. A month later, my GP practice replied to me… They wanted to ensure people didn’t continue to walk away from their practice with the same story as me. They were very eager to improve their standards of care and they said my letter had had not only a huge impact on my doctor but the whole GP practice. For once I felt heard. It felt good. 

I was then told by my Eating Disorder team that they had been approached by my doctor's surgery for training on Eating disorders! I couldn’t believe the words I wrote, had resulted in a whole GP practice getting training for all their doctors.

My CAMHs Eating Disorder team (CEDs) went to my GP practice and held a training day on spotting early warning signs of Eating Disorders and how significant their role is in saving people's lives from this illness. My team reported back to me that the outcome was incredible, with many people attending. The GP I saw three years ago when I first started struggling with my Eating Disorder and failed to recognise the warning signs was on that training day. He approached my Psychiatrist and explained the impact I had on his whole view of Eating Disorders and was very willing to better his knowledge. It may only make a small difference but being vulnerable was worth it if it means I have even changed one life.

I hold this cause very close to me and it would mean a lot if you could donate to help me make a change for the better.

Eating Disorders affect around 1 in 50 people in the UK and have the 2nd highest mortality rate among any psychiatric illnesses. Every 52 minutes someone dies as a direct result of an eating disorder. Hospital admissions for adolescents have more than doubled during the pandemic. Only 6% of those diagnosed with an eating disorder are classified as medically underweight. It is not a weight disorder, it is a mental illness and a person's weight is simply just one of the physical symptoms of it. You cannot look at someone and tell they have an eating disorder. People are being turned away from help as a result of uneducated professionals. We rely on our GPs to spot early warning signs that may have nothing to do with a person’s weight appearance. Their role is crucial. Their responsibility is huge. While serious, eating disorders are treatable and recovery is possible, the key is that the sooner someone gets the treatment they need, the higher the chance is of them making a full and sustained recovery. In 2018, research found that on average, less than 2 hours is spent on teaching about eating disorders in UK medical schools.

Less than 2 hours! Less than two hours in their entire medical degree. And a fifth of UK medical schools don’t provide any training on eating disorders at all. This isn’t good enough. Its delayed access to treatment has led to the misdiagnosis of eating disorders for years. And the consequences for people living with these mental illnesses and their families can be devastating.This needs to change.

My experience is far too common. For anyone who can’t get specialist treatment, a safe place to turn is so important. To bring about positive change, we need to encourage a compassionate, understanding society where people feel able to talk about their illness. We need to ensure that everyone knows how to spot early symptoms, equip healthcare professionals with the knowledge to make a fast referral, and establish funding so that everyone can get the treatment they need as quickly as possible. While Beat works with medical schools to give future GPs proper training on eating disorders, they’re also supporting anyone who needs help now.

Having an eating disorder is not a choice, but recovery is and it’s the best decision I have ever made. I’ve come a long way and although I’ve still got a long way to go, I will never stop fighting.

~

A message to my fellow Eating Disorder survivors… your voice is so powerful and you have the ability to make a change. Don’t let the fear of judgement hold you back from speaking the truth. It’s the smallest things that make the biggest difference.❤️

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