Eating disorder sufferers in UK 'still face bullying, discrimination'

London, Feb 22 (ANI): A new study has found that a majority of people who have suffered eating disorders are still bullied in the UK.

Eighty percent of sufferers still feel stigmatised, not only by the public but also by some health professionals, according to the charity Beat.annah, who recovered from her eating disorder years ago, feels doctors did not trust her when they saw her medical history after she was admitted to hospital with a life threatening condition.

"I was taken to hospital in an ambulance and when I got there the doctors saw in my medical record that I had been treated for an eating disorder as a teenager," Sky News quoted her, as saying.

She added: "They decided that the seizures I was having at the time were just attention seeking behaviour, which they weren't."

Beat's research saw many eating disorder sufferers claiming to have been discriminated against in matters of employment.

Beat's Chief Executive Susan Ringwood said: "People mentioned that they were bullied, that people were picking on them and making disparaging comments about their eating disorder," she said.

"That adds to the sense of stigma."

Beat is now releasing a five-point manifesto urging the party winning the next election to take eating disorders more seriously. (ANI)