Sleeping Dragons and Poppy Seeds: A Personal Journey to Understanding Eating Disorders

If you thought you were of the wrong gender, age, IQ level or social class to develop an eating disorder, I urge you to read my story. Other people see me as Alison the businesswoman, wife, mother, daughter - whatever hat I happen to be wearing. To the outside world I probably appear to be totally in control. But appearances can be deceptive. One in four adults will suffer at some time from a mental illness. I am one of those statistics. When I was 40 I became ill with an eating disorder, which took on many guises until I had it under control. Today, most people wouldn't realise that I had ever had a problem. What they don't see is my daily struggle, and the awareness that I could relapse at any time. This is a true account of what it is like to suffer from an eating disorder. In writing my story I have, in many ways, exposed myself at my most vulnerable. My only purpose in doing so is to try and save another person from picking up the one-way ticket to hell that I have travelled on.