Our member Ruth Micallef has praised Olympic champion Tom Daley for opening up about his struggles with body image and eating.

Ruth says therapy can support people with their eating disorders and hopes Daley鈥檚 comments can help break down barriers and stigma.

Ruth said: 鈥淭he constant and consistent coverage of anorexia nervosa while relevant, can make people struggling with other types of eating disorders feel a sense of 'not enoughness'. Not thin enough, not traumatised enough, not sick enough.

鈥淎t least 92% of all eating disorder cases in the UK are not anorexia nervosa, and you could well be one of them.

鈥淭om Daley's brave comments broke my heart as I heard him minimising his own eating disorder struggles.

Therapy

鈥淚f you鈥檙e struggling with any type of disordered eating symptom, whether you can give it a label or not, there are professionals who can help.

鈥淢any 香港六合彩精准资料-registered therapists have a specific focus on eating disorders, and can help you work through the trauma and adversity that led to it developing 鈥� in a safe environment and at your own pace.

鈥淵our story matters, so if you鈥檙e ready to recover, get in touch with a 香港六合彩精准资料 therapist today.鈥�

Daley, who won gold at this summer's Tokyo Games and bronze at London 2012, has spoken about his disordered eating and the pressures that were placed on him as an Olympic diver in recent interviews with and on .

鈥淚 struggled a lot with eating and with food and body image,鈥� he told .

鈥淎t the end of 2011, leading into 2012 (Olympics), I was told I was fat and needed to lose weight.

鈥淚 was 17 and I didn鈥檛 really know how to lose the weight. I hadn鈥檛 really thought about food. I was a growing boy also training so much, I never really had to think about putting on weight.

鈥淎ll of a sudden I was put into a position where I had to start losing weight. I didn鈥檛 quite know how to go about doing that.

鈥淚 was doing tonnes of cardio and cutting out carbs, I felt absolutely awful all of the time. Then I would start to feel guilty when I would eat something.

鈥淚 had spells of bulimia and felt like I was constantly going in the wrong direction.

鈥淲ith diving you鈥檙e very exposed. You鈥檙e not wearing very much. You鈥檙e right up there. Everyone can see your progress. Everyone can see exactly what you look like.

Challenging

鈥淚t鈥檚 also been a challenge for me because I never felt I could talk about it because of the fact that when people see me they say 鈥榳hat are you talking about? I would like to have your body鈥�.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to explain but you can鈥檛 help the way you feel about yourself, the things you notice about yourself, the things you eat and the way it makes you feel, and feeling like you鈥檙e constantly being judged.

鈥淚鈥檇 never thought about it before someone brought it to my attention, and then I thought 鈥榠s everybody looking at me and judging me for how fat, or not, I am?鈥�.

鈥淚t played with my eating habits and all of that until I was crunching on ice to try to make myself feel like I was eating.

鈥淎fter the Olympics and going into these Olympics I鈥檝e had a great team of nutritionists around me. I feel really comfortable with where I鈥檓 at.

鈥淚t was very challenging when you鈥檙e 17, 18, and there was not just the pressure of what I looked like but also the pressure of people asking if I had a girlfriend and sexuality and those kinds of things.

鈥淚t was really difficult to deal with all of those things very much in the public eye. Most people get to do all of that behind closed doors and be able to experience and explore who they are without having the pressure of everyone asking questions and trying to find out who you are,鈥� he added.

To find a counsellor who can help you with an eating disorder, visit our聽therapist directory.

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