SHAME and anxiety issues plague women who suffer from eating disorders – and actor Christopher Eccleston has revealed he has been haunted by the same demons.that took him to the brink of suicide and left him hospitalised.He says in his new autobiography: “Many times I’ve wanted to reveal that I’m a lifelong “I never have. I always thought of it as a filthy secret, because I’m northern, because I’m male and because I’m working class.
Growing up in Salford, Gtr Manchester, he felt inferior to his twin brothers, Alan and Keith. He thought the siblings, who were eight years older, were better looking than him. He writes in his book I Love The Bones Of You: “I hated my physical appearance, because no matter what I did, I was still fat and ugly.”So he would eat two bread rolls with hummus in the morning then nothing else for the rest of the day.
Embarrassed Christopher felt “emasculated to be suffering from what I felt at the time to be a female condition” and would not seek help for it.He struggled for two years to find acting work after leaving drama school. Despite his body issues, he did some naked modelling for extra cash. After filming finished, he went back to the hospital, where he was put on 24-hour watch when staff realised he was writing his will.
After that, he checked into The Priory in Altrincham, Gtr Manchester, where he was finally given a proper diagnosis. The doctor told him he had severe clinical depression — but that he would get better. And after an extended stay and heavy medication, Christopher recovered.Eating disorder charity Beat praised Eccleston for helping to “combat the stigma” surrounding men and boys who suffer from anorexia and bulimia.