Lottie, age 11

Just as an addiction to cigarettes or drink is bad news, using food to dull down your unhappiness won’t help you to feel better. The stress at home is upsetting Lottie, and bingeing on sugary snacks is a way she has evolved to help her cope. Sadly, it just doesn’t work – as Lottie says, it just makes things worse. I know how Lottie feels – I have a sweet tooth and a tendency to comfort eat when the going gets tough, but like her, I have learnt that a bar of chocolate (or three) can’t solve my problems.

Lottie has to talk to her parents and get some support at school to help her through this difficult time… finding better ways to handle the problem that triggers the overeating is the way forward, but of course, she’ll have to tackle the binge eating too.

Breaking any addiction is hard. Lottie can make sure she doesn’t buy the foods she likes to binge on, and ask her parents to make sure they don’t either. At crunch times, saying, ‘Yes, I can eat that chocolate bar, but not for ten minutes,’ gives her a breathing space to think about whether she really wants to do it. At the end of ten minutes, she can bargain again, until she begins to regain control – this can work with giving up any addiction, from smoking to self-harm. Lastly, Lottie will find many positive ways to deal with her mixed-up feelings in the next chapter – overeating doesn’t help, but there are lots of things that do.

Dear Cathy

I have always been a bit chubby and I hate it. My family are all big and we don’t eat the healthiest food, but I’ve found a way round it by making myself sick after I’ve eaten. Nobody knows. It sounds a bit yukky, but it won’t actually do me any harm, will it?

Sue, age 13

Help!

My friends keep saying I’m too thin and my family are always trying to make me eat, but I’m not thin at all, I’m fat! I hate that they want me to stay this way. Even the teachers are on my case now because they found out I’ve been throwing my packed lunch away. How can I get them to leave me alone?

Stacey, age 12

Often, people with an eating disorder don’t even realize they have a problem. Some, like Sue, feel they’ve discovered a great new way to stay slim… but bulimia, or making yourself sick/using laxatives after eating can wreck your health for good. Others, like Stacey, look in the mirror and see rolls of fat where other people see little more than a skeleton… anorexia is an illness that messes with your head at the same time as it starves your body.

Eating disorders can kill you, like a slow form of suicide. In less extreme cases, they can damage your internal organs and digestive system, mess up your hormone levels and cause hair loss, tooth decay, excess body hair and skin problems. So to answer Sue’s question, yes, bulimia will harm you… big style.