Eating disorders: One Yorkshire woman shares her long road to recovery

Gemma Birbeck has struggled with eating disorders for much of her life - now she is sharing her story to show others in the same position recovery is possible. Chris Burn reports.
Businesswoman Gemma Birbeck is opening up about her decade long struggle with anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating, as new research shows a vast rise in eating disorder cases during lockdown. Picture Jonathan GawthorpeBusinesswoman Gemma Birbeck is opening up about her decade long struggle with anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating, as new research shows a vast rise in eating disorder cases during lockdown. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe
Businesswoman Gemma Birbeck is opening up about her decade long struggle with anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating, as new research shows a vast rise in eating disorder cases during lockdown. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe

“I have had a lot of people say you are really brave but I don’t want to be seen as brave - I want to show it is more common than people think it is,” says Gemma Birbeck as she reflects on her recent decision to go public about her long struggle with eating disorders that took hold as a teenager and persisted into her adult life.

Birbeck, aged 33 and living in Idle to the north of Bradford, has decided to come forward after hearing about the alarming rise in eating disorder cases being reported since the start of lockdown. Specialist charity Beat has reported a 73 per cent increase in calls to its helpline since lockdown began, with double the normal number of people contacting the organisation in crisis as the stress of the situation creates triggers.

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Birbeck published her own story of struggling with anorexia and bulimia, a binge eating disorder and then depression over the course of more than a decade with American magazine Newsweek last month and is now speaking to The Yorkshire Post as she tries to get the message across to people who may be struggling at the moment that change is possible, even if it will not be easy.

Gemma in her teenage years.Gemma in her teenage years.
Gemma in her teenage years.

Now running her own business as a PR consultant and the company director of Leuly Photography and Public Relations and in a happy relationship, Birbeck says her relationship with food has been much less of an issue in recent years after a long and often very difficult struggle.

She says she had been very nervous about sharing her story but has been pleased by the reaction to the Newsweek article.

“I received quite a few messages from people saying they had struggled,” she says. “It was really difficult for me to do it but I hope I can show others you can come away from such a dark place and still survive and live a happy life.”

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Birbeck says she was a “prime target for bullies” as a child due to a combination of doing well academically and being, in her words, “an overweight girl with short hair”.

Gemma has dealt with eating disorder issues for more than a decade.Gemma has dealt with eating disorder issues for more than a decade.
Gemma has dealt with eating disorder issues for more than a decade.

She says at her primary school in Shipley there was one particularly hurtful incident where she had sent a love letter to a boy in her year only for him to tell the class that “the beast” had declared her crush on him.

Birbeck says the bullying continued into secondary school and every summer she would attempt to lose weight before the new school year but struggle to do it.

She says her school days are now “a massive blur”.

“It doesn’t feel like it was me because I was so different. I had a handful of friends but often fell in and out of friendship groups, never really fitting in. But I remember all the feelings that I hid from the world and I can’t describe how awful it is.

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“It is like living with an abuser - this internal voice telling you all the time you are not worthy of anything. I just always used to think maybe the bullies would stop if I was popular. Every summer, I was trying to come back as this thinner person, thinking that was what made you popular.”

But when she changed schools at 16 to do her A Levels, her determination for a fresh start saw her put herself on a drastic diet and fitness regime that saw her drop several sizes in a matter of weeks.

“I know this sounds awful, but it was great to walk into Sixth Form on that first day and boys started talking to me and people wanted to be my friend. At first, I was quite sociable. I wanted to be that popular person.”

But she says the impact of not eating properly soon began to take a major toll as she obsessed over her weight to the detriment of her new friendships and her studies as she developed what now recognises was anorexia and bulimia. “I would fall asleep in class, I was skipping school as everything just became about not eating.”

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She tried a process calling purging in which an individual makes themselves sick or misuse laxatives to avoid digesting food.

“The first time I sat down to purge afterwards it was horrendous to think about the fact of what I had just done.

“One time I had 15 laxatives in one go. I still have issues with my digestive system because of it. I was told I might not be able to have children at one point as my menstrual cycle stopped.”

Matters came to a head when her parents, who’d tried for months to get her to admit a problem, returned home early and found her vomiting surrounded by food wrappers.

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Birbeck began seeing a psychiatrist and a nutritionist as part of her treatment and says it took her several months to come to terms with the reality of her eating disorders after being officially diagnosed with anorexia nervosa with bulimic tendencies.

For around a year or so, life was relatively normal and she moved in with her boyfriend; but there were problems in the background.

“When a big event was coming up, I would force myself to take laxatives to lose half-a-stone. Any event where I would be meeting new people, I would starve myself a week before. Looking back, I justified it to myself that ‘I’m not super skinny’ and ‘I’m not doing it all the time’. All I could focus on was the feeling when you meet someone new and them actually acknowledging you exist.”

But after becoming pregnant when she was 20, Birbeck says she realised she need to eat during the pregnancy for the sake of her unborn child. But 11 weeks after the birth of her son, her relationship ended and she ended up losing four stone. Her weight fluctuated for years at this point as she fell in and out of the eating disorder trap.

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“I’d be so hungry that it would get to the evening when my son was asleep, and I’d have to eat. This sent me on a massive rampage eating anything and everything I could, not even tasting the food. It’s like you zone out, consume ridiculous amounts of food, and then when you ‘wake up’ you’re exhausted, confused, your belly is swollen, and you feel sick.

“At this point, I couldn’t bring myself to purge, so I’d try again to starve the next day. However, it just became a vicious circle of starving and bingeing every day.”

A few years later when she was at Bradford University, Birbeck suffered severe depression due to the binge eating.

“I just didn’t want to be here, I couldn’t see there was any way out. During the day I’d put on my mask and act fine for my son but inside, I was tormented and desperate to escape this life that I blamed myself for.”

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She says a turning point came when she had no choice but to seek professional help and was prescribed antidepressants and referred for weekly therapy sessions which helped her begin to finally appreciate her own worth.

“When I was reading back through my medical notes from the time, I said I didn’t want to get help because I was fearful they would take my son away from me. Part of the reason I want to speak out is because there shouldn’t be a stigma and fear about seeking help.

“The medication helped me cope with my negative feelings in the short-term and to be able to talk about the bad things that had happened to me. If I hadn’t I dread to think what would have happened to me.”

She says over the past five years, she has worked hard to build a healthier relationship with food - helped by being in a loving and supportive relationship with a long-term partner.

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“Food to me isn’t the focus of my day anymore, neither is my weight. Yes, the long term effects aren’t nice, one being Imposter Syndrome, but I no longer believe that I’m not worthy of being loved or not a good mother.

“The fact that somebody loves me for who I am has really helped me. I know that I will never be 100 per cent recovered, but I’ve learnt to recognise disordered thinking and how to it is just how you cope with it before it takes over.”

Birbeck also founded her own PR business last year after years of work experience, agency employment, online courses and various freelance roles.

She has a simple message for those going through a similar journey to the one she has been on.

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“Believe that recovery is possible even in your darkest days when you feel there is no way out - there is always something worth fighting for. It does take a lot of soul-searching and it is not a quick fix but it will be an eye-opening journey.”

Advice for helping loved ones

Gemma says people with a loved one who is suffering with an eating disorder should try to be understanding.

“I’m not a professional, but I’ve been through it and know what makes you feel worse.

“The first thing is to try and talk on an understanding level and to make the sufferer see you believe them about how they feel. Don’t ever try and force them to sit and eat as it will absolutely destroy them.

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“Research to understand why it is happening - it is not just that they don’t want to eat, it’s usually something in their life that has caused them to doubt their worth. It will be painful, but it will also be helpful as you get that perspective of what is going on inside their head.”

For support, visit www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk or ring the Beat helpline on 0808 801 0677.

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