This National Eating Disorder Week we’re encouraging people to reject the stereotype and reach out to the unseen people with the condition.

It comes as eating disorder charity BEAT is raising awareness that eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, or background.

Approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder. Around 25% of those affected are male. About 30% are aged 30 or over. About 23% per cent of people with an eating disorder are autistic.

Dr Rob Bale, Consultant Psychiatrist and Interim Chief Operating Officer for Mental Health and Learning Disability at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Banes, Swindon and Wiltshire said: “The idea that people living with an eating disorders are primarily teenage girls or that people with an eating disorder are always very thin is outdated and misleading.

“We now know much more about the way mental health problems affect people’s eating and how to spot the signs of an eating disorder. We also know much more about supporting people facing challenges around their eating.

“An eating disorder is a manifestation of a person’s ongoing mental distress and can include restrictive or avoidant eating, anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.

“They can affect anyone of any age, any gender, any weight and from any background.

“Eating disorders do not discriminate.”