Amy will be home for Christmas Day

AFife family whose relationships struggled under the pressures of an eating disorder will enjoy Christmas together this year.

Last Christmas Amy Young from Cellardyke was away from home, very ill and being treated in a specialist unit for eating disorders.

As Amy’s recovery continues, she and her parents hope telling their story will help others feeling desperate or needing support.

Amy, 28, shares how the cost of living led to her health crisis, and mum Celia and dad Dan tell of their joy and pride at their daughter’s progress.

“When you’re in the grip of an eating disorder and somebody tells you things can get better it’s impossible to believe them,” Amy said.

“I’ve been in that horrible, horrible place. And I’m telling you it’s true, recovery is possible and you can be happy again.”

Amy grew up in Fife, a high achiever, studying at St Andrews before moving to Milton Keynes five years ago to pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.

“That’s when my eating disorders started,” she explained.

“I’d not moved away from home before and I had a normal relationship with food growing up.

“For me it was living on a limited budget that started it. First I cut out my socialising budget, which made me quite isolated, then I cut down spending on food.

“This is something we’re seeing in this cost-of-living crisis too, eating disorders increasing as people restrict.

“Around half experience their first symptoms of an eating disorder in adulthood.”

Amy’s illness later spiralled into bulimia and over-exercise but, as with many eating disorders, she kept it secret from her family.

“It’s so easy to tell yourself you’re in control,” Amy said.

“You don’t realise you’ve really lost control.”

For Celia and Dan this was one of the most difficult things to deal with.

Celia explained: “It came as a huge shock and, for a long time, Amy battled to keep us in the dark.

“It was a truly dreadful feeling watching someone you love changing from a happy, energetic, funloving girl to someone you hardly recognise.

“As a mother I felt I’d failed – how could Amy have reached this place ‘unnoticed’?

“I really wanted to find someone whose loved one had developed the illness as an adult living away from home, and this I never did.”

When Amy finally got help (a close friend insisted she go back to her GP after she felt dismissed the first time round) she let her parents back in.

“I’d kind of cut them out of my life, pushed them away, as eating disorder brain thrives on isolation,” Amy explained.

The road to her recovery came last year when she was admitted to the Regional Eating Disorders Unit (REDU) at St John’s Hospital in Livingston.

Celia says: “When REDU stepped in we breathed a sigh of relief that someone might be able to stop her dying.

“I’ll never forget Amy asking me to take photos of her on the day she went in, so she would remember not to get to this point ever again.

“Tears streamed down my face as I saw the true nature of this terrible illness.”

The family will be together at Christmas, and Amy will see her friends, including for a lunch with a wild swimming group.

RECOVERING: Amy, with Celia and Dan, developed an eating disorder after moving away. Picture by Gareth Jennings.