We'd like to offer these pages as a space for you to share your stories. Whether your experience of an eating disorder is or has been as a sufferer, a parent, a partner, friend - whatever! - it's amazing how much the telling of your own experiences can in turn help others to cope the better with their own.

Please send or e-mail your personal accounts, poems etc to the contact addresses given on our Home Page.

To start the ball rolling, here we have a thought-provoking and honest view of anorexia as seen from a perspective you don't often get the chance to share: the experience of an anorectic's sibling.

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SALLY. When Becky was diagnosed with anorexia it was a relief in a way. I thought, 'Now at last they will do something to help her, something to make her better'. When you are a mother and you are watching your daughter wasting away in front of your eyes is the most agonising thing imaginable for me. It was sheer hell, and I am not exaggerating. Even with treatment, though, Becky took longer to get better than we had hoped. If hadn't been for the support of our family, friends and the staff at the unit I don't know how we would have got through it.
We knew how much our daughter needed help, but, my goodness, we needed help to! I'm just so grateful people were there for us when we needed them. One main lesson I have learned; is not to blame yourself or your daughter.
 

BEN. My best female friend Em told me she'd been making herself throw up after she ate anything so as not to put weight on. She used to be a tiny bit chubby, maybe, but now she's not-but she says she still keeps doing it.
I'm worried about her. You're always hearing about eating disorders on TV and in the magazines. I'm scared she's starting one of those or something. But when I said something to her she told me to mind my own business. I think I'll ask at school if the nurse can help her. I don't like going behind her back, but this illness can kill and I care about her.
 

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BETH. Mostly when you hear about anorexia, it's about teenage girls and some young boys, but I've got a 12 year old daughter and 6 year old son of my own. I've had anorexia for years, but there have been times when I have managed to maintain a more or less normal weight for long stretches. My partner has been great, but he still doesn't really understand it well. I don't either. Now I'm really under weight again, and they are on at me to go to a unit in Bristol for treatment. I desperately want to get better for Steve and the children, but I'm scared of going away and leaving them too. I'm terrified they will take the children away from me. I really need someone to talk to again.
 

SALIMA. I'm not sure if I have an eating disorder or not, because lately I have been eating less and less food, but maybe it is because I am feeling depressed, I don't know. I also don't know why I'm feeling depressed like this. Then I have mood swings and start to get so worked up about it all I think I am going to explode. That is when I cut myself, and I don't know why, but cutting myself somehow makes me feel better too, especially since Dad left and we moved down to here for Mum's work. Whatever people say, Cornwall can be a lonely place for a teenager like me from outside the county.

PAUL. I was overweight as a teenager and hated it, so when I reached 21 I slimmed down and everything was great. But then I got scared of getting fat again, so I started to exercise-and now exercising has taken over my life. I can't eat normally without it. This way, I stay slim and people admire me because I'm so fit. Inside, though, I'm terrified of what might happen if I stopped all the exercise. But I want my life back because I am a prisoner of my obsession.
 

CINDY. When our daughter came home from her first year at University she was obviously anorexic to us. We were shocked at how thin she was. But she flatly refused to go and see anyone, and we were powerless to make her. My wife was distraught-as I was-but I started phoning around and at least found somebody my daughter would talk to. That was the start of her accepting she needed help, It is hard battle, believe me, and I don't mind telling everyone-families like ours need every bit of help and support we can get, CEDA is on the right track.