#JustTwoHours: Social media influencer speaks out about struggle with accessing help from GP for anorexia
Ciandra Birnbaum is joining calls for GPs to have mandatory training in eating disorders
Last updated 4th Mar 2022
A social media influencer is opening up about her struggles of trying to get help from her GP for an eating disorder.
Ciandra Birnbaum, who lives in Selby in North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with anorexia when she was a teenager and is currently in recovery after relapsing last year.
She's joining calls for GPs to have mandatory training in eating disorders and is warning we'll "hit the point of crisis" if they aren't able to spot the early signs of the illness.
"You're not thin enough"
Up until she was 12-years-old, Ciandra was clinically overweight and was bullied a lot at school.
A year later she went on a "summer diet" which eventually led to her developing anorexia.
Ciandra's mum, desperately concerned with her daughter's dramatic weight loss, took her to the GP who explained Ciandra didn't fit the BMI criteria of 17.5 - which was the cut off to be classed as anorexic.
"In my head I was turned away and the GP told my mum to just feed me more. But by this point the eating disorder had taken over my personality", explains Ciandra.
"Those words of "you're not thin enough" made me go tenfold into the eating disorder.
"I remember my mum took me to the doctors in January and by March I was in hospital because my weight had got so low I was medically unstable."
Over the next decade Ciandra was in and out of CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and AMHS (Adult Mental Health Services).
She was also an in-patient in the Priory for a year between the ages of 15 and 16 -years-old.
"I think if the anorexia had been caught earlier that wouldn't have happened", adds Ciandra.
WATCH: Ciandra tells us her story of her recovery from anorexia
Ciandra found herself relapsing into negative behaviours and thought processes in August 2021 and decided to go back to her GP for help.
"I was back in adult services and dealing with the pressure of them saying "we'd love to give you a dietician but unfortunately you're not ill enough"".
"I remember going to my GP about six months ago and she had never referred anyone into the eating disorder service before. I thought "wow okay"".
"I told my parents and they couldn't believe it either."
"We're going to hit the point of crisis"
Fashion blogger Ciandra now uses her social media platform to raise awareness of eating disorders and to dispel the many misconceptions around them.
She believes it's vital GPs have mandatory training in them to ensure they have the education and training they need to spot the early signs.
"It would just be more helpful for GPs and health professionals to have one day of extensive training, an intensive overview of the different types of eating disorders and how they manifest themselves", she says.
"An individual might not even know they have an eating disorder so it's so important a GP is able to spot if there's something wrong if that person was to go to them for help.
"If they're able to spot the symptoms it would be so beneficial for that person and actually prevent a lot of the harder work down the line.
"I think it's about preventative measures rather than about crisis management."