Adapt Eating Distress

We are please to OFFICALLY announce that Dr Stuart Flanagan - the resident Doctor on Radio One's Sunday Surgery is our charity's Patron.

Belfast born Doctor Stuart knows all to well the growing problem of Eating Disorders, low self esteem and poor body image expereienced by young people today with all three coming up as a regular topic and the texts we see come from a wide range of people, and partucularly with young men.

Adapt are one of only three charities within Northern Ireland that support people suffering with eating disorders, and are the only service dedicated to supporting young people within NI. As you might be aware only 5 years ago there were no services or provision for those suffering from an Eating Disorder within NI and sufferers were sent to England for treatment. Services and treatment is still limited within NI to this date. This issues is therefore of great concern within both the medical and political arena, while also being a hot issue within media.

Children as young as 5 years old are being treated locally for Anorexia and the numbers of young people under 16 availing of our services has increased tenfold over the past 5 years. With 1 in 10 people suffering from an Eating Disorder and an estimated 1.1 million people in the UK currently diagnosed with an ED it’s becoming a huge problem. Of these sufferers a quarter of all sufferers are male, however the true number of male sufferers is hugely underreported.

Due to the severe physical side effects and high mortality rate of Eating Disorders (it is estimated one fifth of all sufferers will die from their ED), the protect life strategy within Northern Ireland are now helping us tackle this problem by making it priority in the health trust. However we are still a long way to breaking the stigma that surrounds Eating Disorders.