Adrian Chiles, 55, has opened up about his own fears that he may have an eating disorder after new research emerged that over half of the men suffering from the problem never seek treatment. The TV presenter admitted he has “no off switch” when it comes to food, as he spoke out on the issue during Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
Discussing the topic in his column for The Guardian, Adrian compared his relationship with food to that of an alcoholic who has “no off switch”.
He said: “But when it comes to food, it’s a different story. Here, my ‘off switch’ is useless.
“I don’t know whether this counts as a disorder – I don’t want another disorder; I’ve been diagnosed with quite enough to be getting on with – but it sure can feel like it.”
Adrian said the only way he can combat the issue is by trying “not to eat all day”, admitting it’s the “best” remedy he knows.
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Recalling a specific incident when he struggled with food, Adrian remembered: “A few years back, when I was on a morning train from London to Manchester, having already had breakfast at home, the man came past with a platter of bacon and sausage sandwiches.
“I could neither resist nor decide which to go for, so he gave me both. I ate both. Ten minutes later, he came past again, his platter still loaded.
“‘Just about to bin these,’ he said. He might as well have been holding some kittens and telling me he was about to drown them.
“I couldn’t let it happen. He gave me another three baps. I ate all three. My day was ruined.”
He did decide to find out if he had the condition a year ago, and was prescribed amphetamines, which he said had “changed his life for the better”.
Adrian recalled to the aforementioned publication last year that a friend helped him through his diagnosis: “I had long been holding a couple of opinions that, thanks to him, I don’t hold any more.
“Firstly, I had developed a sense that, from being wildly under-diagnosed, ADHD had now gone the other way and was being diagnosed and treated left, right and centre.
“I was wrong – wrong because I had been seeing it through the prism of my own experience: essentially, that I had been able to pay to see a specialist. For everyone else, Shelford made it clear, it’s a very long wait.”
Adrian also previously suffered an alcohol problem, and had to cut down on booze significantly.
At one point, the BBC Radio 5 Live host admitted to drinking as many as 38 units in a day, before getting involved in the eye-opening BBC documentary Drinkers Like Me.
He said on the series-linked podcast: “The first time I ever counted was the first day of filming. West Brom was playing Liverpool then it was my mate’s 40th birthday. I tooted them all up in the morning, it was something like 38 units.
“And it didn’t even feel like a big drinking day to me. I thought, hang on a bit, this is dodgy.”
For eating disorder support contact charity Beat on 08088010677 or visit beateatingdisorders.org.uk
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