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Telly addicts

Freddie flintoff living with bulimia

68 replies

Haggisfish · 28/09/2020 21:21

What an incredibly brave man. An exceptionally insightful programme. I hope it helps others.

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 28/09/2020 21:25

It is very good isn't it. Thought provoking. Well done to him for making this programme.

TheZeppo · 28/09/2020 21:26

Completely agree. It seems very raw for him
and I hope that he’s doing well now.

MrsAvocet · 28/09/2020 21:39

I think it is very good that people are starting to more openly discuss eating disorders. It is commoner in boys and men than people realise, especially in certain sports. The provision of care for people of either sex is very poor in most parts of the country and there is still a lot of stigma attached. Hopefully a well known public figure being very open about his illness will help others.

cheesecrack · 28/09/2020 21:42

Oh I love him. What a gent.

That family were amazing. RIP Lawrence.

megletthesecond · 28/09/2020 21:43

He's been very brave telling about this. I'm sure it will help many people.

Haggisfish · 28/09/2020 21:54

The mechanism is so similar to other addictive behaviours. The brain is such an odd thing.

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littlestpogo · 28/09/2020 22:03

I also watched and thought it was really moving - incredibly honest and open and quite painful to watch. It was very brave of him.

Candleabra · 28/09/2020 22:10

Very painful. I thought he was very brave. Made me think hard about some of my own behaviours around food (all about control). He's made me think I need to contact my counsellor again as I'm clearly not fine, as I've been telling everyone. It's not often I'm moved to think about writing to someone famous to wish them well, but he definitely made a real difference tonight.

Kanaloa · 28/09/2020 22:12

Yes, very honest and open. I hope he’s doing well. We definitely need more people speaking out about these types of issues.

PoloNeckKnickers · 28/09/2020 22:21

Really thought provoking. I was treated for an eating disorder about 15 years ago and still struggle. He seems like such a genuine bloke. Felt so sorry for Lawrence's family Sad

SoupDragon · 29/09/2020 07:27

What made it particularly good is that he is a "lad" IYSWIM - funny, popular, sporting "hero", laddish TV presenter... really not the sort of person you would think of as having an eating disorder.

The way he pin pointed the start of it to when the press laid into him for being overweight was particularly sad.

ssd · 29/09/2020 07:30

Very very brave of him.

TweetUsOnFacebook · 29/09/2020 08:47

How awful that he can google 'Fat Freddie' and find the photos that hurt him and triggered his disorder Sad.
He's wonderful to be so honest and open about it. I hope the programme helps other sufferers get help.

AnyFucker · 29/09/2020 08:49

What channel was this on please

SoupDragon · 29/09/2020 08:53

BBC1 (9pm last night)

SummerHouse · 29/09/2020 08:54

God but what a brave man. You just want to switch it off for him and tell him how beautiful he is inside and out.

Mrsjayy · 29/09/2020 08:54

What channel was this on please

Bbc1

I didn't know him from cricket so Fat Freddie passed me by I just knew him from telly seemed a lad etc etc just goes to show you never know what any body is going through in private. Poor guy hope he keeps on his road to recovery.

AnyFucker · 29/09/2020 09:08

Thanks

EdinaMonsoon · 29/09/2020 10:47

Agree that his reputation for being “one of the lads” made it all the more powerful & will hopefully speak to a demographic who are less likely to seek help. I watched it in tears. All the way through I kept thinking how he was really in denial about being in control. I was so pleased when he decided to get help. I sincerely hope he’s continued & finding it healing.

MarshaBradyo · 29/09/2020 10:49

I haven’t watched it but a brave thing to talk about

unique1986 · 29/09/2020 11:24

He did seem to loads of weight quite suddenly.
I wondered why.

SimonJT · 29/09/2020 17:27

Its becoming a much more common problem in sport, its something I was diagnosed with in my late teens, I still have small blips. Sport can be really damaging, I’ve put a little bit of weight on over lockdown, its only a small amount but its visible as I usually have very low body fat. If I was playing for my old team I would have been punished for my weight gain in front of the team, despite it having no impact on my performance.

There is a huge expectation for certain sports people to look a certain way, by both their employer and some members of the public. When Keegan Hirst posed for attitude there were complaints that he didn’t have visible abs Hmm

A huge issue is during training you do have to up your calories, when I was playing more I would be consuming around 3,500 calories a day, when I wasn’t training I only needed 2,300 a day, thats a huge decrease in food, especially when your appetite doesn’t change.

Support is poor (for women as well), I couldn’t access support on the NHS as I was a healthy weight, the fact that I was also using my insulin to drop weight (which is very dangerous) wasn’t bad enough to access support. I accessed support privately, I had the luxury of being able to afford this, lots of people don’t.

MrsAvocet · 29/09/2020 18:04

That's worrying SimonJT but I can't say I'm surprised. My son is a cyclist and my daughter a dancer, and whilst fortunately neither of them has developed any problems (yet...) they are both potentially very toxic environments and I know a number of young people who have developed serious eating disorders.
When it comes to support, I think the first issue is them recognising that they need help, in an environment where they are being praised, and more successful as a result of lower weigh there is little incentive to address the problem. Then of course as you say, even if they will ask for it, it is very difficult to access appropriate help on the NHS. From my observations a young person needs to be nearly dead to get into inpatient care in our part of the country. Which is another issue in fact - our "local" inpatient unit is over 150 miles away. Mental health provision in this country is woeful in general terms, and within that, the care for those with eating disorders (of all kinds) seems to be particularly poor.
Let's hope that this documentary helps raise awareness and improve things. I think it is very brave of Andrew Flintoff to speak out as there is still so much stigma attached to the subject.

PuzzledObserver · 29/09/2020 18:43

I watched it and thought it was very moving. He exposed a fair few myths along the way.

People are right about the difficulty of accessing support. I spoke to my GP nearly 25 years ago and asked for help with binge eating. His response: you are an intelligent woman, you don’t have a psychological problem.

????

TheoneandObi · 29/09/2020 19:54

Just watched this on catch up and am pondering whether to suggest a watch for my bulemic daughter. She's 22 and probably is already aware of it. She's admitted to her problem. Freddie crystallised it brilliantly tho - if it's not vomiting it's over-training. Spit in description of what my DD does. It must be hell

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