Harry Derbidge has spoken out about his decade-long eating disorder.
‘The Only Way Is Essex’ star admitted his anorexia almost sent him to rehab after his weight plummeted to just seven-and-a-half stone.
Speaking on ITV’s ‘This Morning’, he said: "I used to look at food and if I didn’t like the look of it or smell of it or touch of it, I’d always make sure that I’d hide it behind my tongue and I was forever going to the toilet and spill it all out. That would happen two or three times during a meal."
It wasn’t until his mum, Karen, sent Harry to the doctor that the star finally saw what he was doing to his body.
He said: "My mum would forever be sending me to a doctor because she’d be worried about my weight, and 18 months ago we went in and I weighed seven-and-a-half stone … and for a boy, that’s really, really bad. The average should be 10-stone or 11.
"[The doctor] said to me, ‘If you continue to keep losing weight, we are going to have to send you into a clinic’ … and for me that was the scariest point ever."
Harry even explained how his eating disorder left him fearing restaurants and family gatherings where he couldn’t be in control of the food he was being served.
He said: "I’d always have a bit of a panic when I was going out for a bit of dinner, just because I knew I wouldn’t eat anything on the menu. Half the time I would create my own menu … and Christmas dinners, my mum would just bring it out how I like it."
Now on the path of recovery, the 20-year-old reality star said: "It took a long time, but I literally found what I enjoyed eating. I would eat six meals a day but make them small and still plain, maybe nuts during the day, protein shakes … right now, I’m at 10 stone and I’m more happy in the way I look and how I feel, if I could put on another stone that would be perfect."
Now Harry wants to help others by visiting schools and working with eating disorder charities to raise awareness. He added: "I want to go into schools to talk about this and turn my negative into a positive… and hopefully work with a charity."
Harry Derbidge opens up about eating disorder
