Raising awareness of OCO or Why doesnt anyone see the sick chubbies? Part 1

I had a very long discussion with a friend about eating disorders. We are all familiar with anorexia, most people today know someone who has had it. At every school there is at least one girl or boy who sits in a corner hiding a skeletal body underneath layers of clothes. Sitting at the table with an empty plate watching others munch away, obsessed with food but never eating. There is no doubt that this person is sick. Then what about the one next to the skinny minnie? The slightly fat girl who has got her bag full of sweets and always, always has something sugar covered in her locker, would you call her sick?

I used to be that girl.
I have lived with an eating disorder.
The other kind.

Just like an anorexic I lied to my parents about what I ate. It was just the other way around. I bought armfuls of chocolate and bags of pick-and-mix and hid them in my room so that my parents wouldn't know. I had huge portions of noodles as an afternoon snack and I was a regular at the school cafeteria.
Sounds like the average sad tragic fat girl?
I couldn't stop. I cried and ate and ate and cried. I hated myself and my body and to make it all better I ate a bit more. I was spiralling down towards a depression wanting to punish myself even worse. A few guessed something wasn't completely right, but no one knew how to handle it. When my parents told me to stop eating I ate more and by the end of 2004 I started to show signs of what I realised later was bulimia. I was sick.

Photo: The Sun