Support is available for people with eating disorders
Local experts are supporting this year’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week, myth-busting about who can have problems and how.
This year’s theme for the national week, run by the eating disorders charity Beat UK, is ‘anyone can have an eating disorder’.
‘We want to raise awareness and try to bust some of the myths around what eating disorders are and what they look like,’ said psychological therapist Tom Byrom.
He said that through raising awareness, the stigma surrounding the topic can be reduced, and individuals can access the help they might need.
‘Part of the reason it’s thought that people aren’t accessing support and help is because of that lack of awareness,’ said clinical psychologist Emily Barrasin.
Eating disorders can present in many ways, including anorexia and binge eating.
Some myths around eating disorders include that someone must be underweight to have an eating disorder, they must be a particular gender, eating disorders are diets gone wrong, and individuals cannot recover from eating disorders.
‘In terms of our services and who we’re seeing there has been an increase and it continues to steadily increase.
‘The numbers have increased since 2019, 2020 following the pandemic,’ said Dr Barrasin.
However, the number of people accessing support from local services is still lower than expected – and it is believed that in some cases people might not realise that they would benefit from help and advice.
‘From what we’ve seen on the island, anorexia is the most prevalent, alongside binge-eating disorders,’ said Mr Byrom.
Guernsey’s eating disorder team is part of secondary care specialist mental health services, overseen by Health & Social Care.
It provides assessment, support, psychological therapy and, where appropriate, medical management for adults over the age of 18 with an eating disorder.
Referrals can be received from general practitioners, a hospital-based team, or another practitioner from within the service, but these do not accept self-referrals.
‘Other services are out there, such as Guernsey Mind who will provide a level of support and different resources,’ said Mr Byrom, ‘but specialist care would be through Health & Social Care.’
They said that being able to voice a problem and share it with another person was an important first step.
‘That person might not be ready at that time to talk about it, but the loved one can let them know they’re there when they’re ready to talk about it,’ said Dr Barrasin.
Those who struggle with eating can often be because of low mood, anxiety and low self-esteem, and mental health difficulties often go hand-in-hand with eating disorders.
‘Eating Disorder Awareness Week encourages people to bring awareness to people and provide knowledge and understanding of how people might be able to seek support,’ said Mr Byrom.
