Ipswich resident Phoebe Webb who struggled with anorexia for several years shares experiences in Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2023

A Suffolk resident who struggled with an eating disorder for several years has opened up about their desperation to recover and their subsequent job helping others going through the same.

Phoebe Webb, who lives in Ipswich, was diagnosed with anorexia in her mid-teens when it became a way of managing OCD and depression.

Now 29 and eight years into their recovery journey, Phoebe works as a peer support worker in the NHS in East and West Suffolk helping under 18s with eating disorders, and is also an ambassador for eating disorder charity Beat.

This marks Eating Disorder Awareness Week which runs from February 27 to March 5 and focusses on education around anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and other disorders.

For Phoebe, viewing certain foods as 'good' and 'bad' started at around age nine and this eventually led to restriction.

"I suffered with OCD first so that was a contributor. As that developed and grew in severity, my sense of self and control and everything about my life was not really in my hands," they explained.

"As my mental health deteriorated in my mid teens, anorexia was its own way of managing."

Phoebe was hospitalised on a number of occasions with limited success. She said she often felt treatment was not sustainable after leaving and they would slip back into restrictive habits.

"It is one thing doing it when you're being observed and made to do it, but it means when there's change from that a lot of people struggle," she said.

"It has got to be a very robust treatment plan following that and there's only so much that treatment teams can do when it comes to someone's motivation to continue pursuing recovery."

Phoebe remembers feeling like she was being left behind because her eating disorder left her unable to do things her peers were doing, like going to university or travelling.

She said it was hard to let go of the eating disorder as it made her feel a sense of identity, accomplishment and purpose while everything else in her life felt like it was failing.

"I remember thinking 'this is it, this is what my life is,'" she said.

"The longevity of the illness was taking its toll and, after many many years, I decided to try to recover. It was a matter of dipping my toe in and taking my experiences of treatment with what was positive and what wasn't.

"I had to rebuild my relationship with my treatment team, as well as with myself," she added.

And the recovery journey hasn't always been easy for Phoebe, who said she has had 'blips' along the way.

"It is going to feel terrible at times, and you will think that this isn't any easier than living with an eating disorder so what's the point, but if you learn to sit with the discomfort, manage it and push through, over time the eating disorder will be less alluring," they said.

"Having a good relationship with food and enjoying food is so fundamental, not just for the sake of eating because we have to, but because socially it is so important."

In her role as a peer support worker, Phoebe works with young people who are struggling with eating disorders, something she said helps to keep her on track.

"I can be that person who has been there and can demonstrate recovery in a hopeful and realistic way and help them believe in the process," she said.

"I am just grateful now, to have the normal stuff. I spent a lot of my childhood feeling different and struggling socially and being treated not especially well by peers for being different.

"All things considered, I have got my physical health which I didn't always appreciate and tried to destroy and actually it is pretty cool that bodies are so resilient."

This year Eating Disorder Awareness Week has a particular focus on eating disorders in men, but also encourages people to learn about other disorders that are less represented.

Although Phoebe was diagnosed with anorexia, she hopes other illnesses like bulima and binge eating disorder, which are more common than anorexia, get more representation and education in the future.

According to eating disorder charity Beat, 1.25 million people have an eating disorder in the UK, with just eight per cent having a diagnosis of anorexia, while 47 per cent have OFSED (Other specified feeding or eating disorder), 22 per cent have binge eating disorder and 19 per cent have bulimia.

The latest statistics estimate that a quarter of people with eating disorders in the UK are male. This would mean that over 300,000 men in the UK have an eating disorder.

Phoebe thinks GPs need better training to cope with patients who have eating disorders, and said she wished she had the support that is available now when she was younger.

She urged anyone who is struggling with restriction or thinks they may have an eating disorder to talk with a trusted person or contact Beat or Suffolk charity Wednesday's Child for help.

Giving advice for others struggling, Phoebe said: "Trust your gut and listen to the part of you that is saying maybe this isn't right.

"You're still in there. The eating disorder may try and overtake, but you know yourself. Recognise that and run with it."

If you’re worried about your own or someone else’s health, you can contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or beateatingdisorders.org.uk.