Cirencester charity urges people to learn the signs of eating disorders
People are being encouraged to learn the signs of eating disorders as part of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.
According to eating disorder charity BEAT, who run a support service in Cirencester, 1.25 million people suffer from disordered eating across the country.
The charity says “eating disorders like ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and OSFED are complex mental health conditions which are often misunderstood, mislabelled or undiagnosed which can prevent people from reaching out for help.”
The charity is running a campaign to raise awareness that anyone can be affected by an eating disorder at anytime, regardless of their age, gender, or background.
Some of the signs to look out for include missing meals and food going missing in the middle of the night.
Tom Quinn is from the charity: "We know that on average, it takes men longer to recognise the illness, seek help for it and get help for it as well, compared to women.
"Anyone can recover from this illness at any age, even if you've had the illness for decades.
"I would really encourage anyone, even if it's 'manageable for you', to get help if it's having a detrimental effect on your life. You're never too old to get help.
"We've just done a survey of over one thousand people who have an eating disorder of some kind, what we found was pretty shocking.
"Fewer than one in five of people are seeking help within the first six months of experiencing symptoms and over a third waited for two years to do something about it."