**Veteran broadcaster Baroness Joan Bakewell, 82, faced a fierce backlash last week, after making controversial remarks in an interview with The Sunday Times. **
Joan revealed she was alarmed by the rise of anorexia in young people, adding: “it arises presumably because they are preoccupied with being beautiful, healthy and thin.
"No one has anorexia in societies where there isn’t enough food. They don’t have anorexia in the camps in Syria. I think it’s possible anorexia could be about narcissism.”
Closer spoke to Emmerdale star and recovered anorexic, Gemma Oaten, 31. She explains why anorexia is a mental health issue that needs to be taken seriously and never dismissed as narcissism.
She says: “My eating disorder started when I was 10, and I was bullied by other girls in my school.
"I couldn’t control what they said but I could control what I put in my body. I remember looking in the mirror and thinking if there’s less of me, there’s less for people to see and hurt.
"I was first admitted to hospital when I was just 11 years old and weighed 4 1/2 stone. I was hospitalised a further three times in my 12-year battle – at one point I was living on six cornflakes a day and a thimble of water. I'm really happy to say I'm now fully recovered.
“I was very saddened by what Joan Bakewell said – and shocked.
"Anorexics are about as far from narcissistic as it’s possible to be. They don’t flaunt their bodies, often they wear baggy clothes to disguise their weight loss.
"They don’t look in mirrors to admire how thin they are. They are trapped in a world of pain and torture."
For more info visit: www.seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
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