Strictly Come Dancing professional Dianne Buswell has opened up about her devastating eating disorder which could have caused her to have a “heart attack” in her early twenties.
During the latest instalment of Freeze the Fear on Tuesday (May 3), the professional ballroom dancer shared her difficult relationship with food as she confessed that she had a serious eating disorder at one point.
After working on a cruise line for many years, the 32-year-old explained how she and her fellow dancers were subjected to weekly weigh ins and was even given two “weight warnings” after she gained two kilos while away at sea.
She went on to explain that over the years she developed an unhealthy relationship with her body image and would even “make herself sick” in order to keep the weight off while performing mind-blowing performances every week.
(Image: BBC)
The professional dancer told her fellow co-stars: “I worked on a cruise ship for quite a while, but it’s tricky as a dancer because you get weighed.
“We got weighed every week, we had a thing called a W.W which is a weight warning [and] I had like two of them in my time [where] I weighed two more kilos than I do now.
“I’d have a bit of spinach and you’d watch all the other girls and they would be the same you just didn’t eat and you were surrounded by food.”
(Image: BBC)
The Strictly pro went on to explain that through her dancing career she started to try and alter her body at an unhealthy level where she would make herself sick.
She continued: “I adore dancing but as I became more successful in my dancing, the pressures also grew and that can sort of spiral you into this almost self-doubt and the pressure of that it makes you do crazy things.
“You’re constantly checking your weight, you’re thinking I need to be a certain way, I need to look a certain way and I definitely took the body image thing to an unhealthy level.
“I went through one point where I just wouldn’t eat, so I would have a drink for my lunch and a drink for my dinner – I just drank shakes.
“I got really sick, I had nothing. If I did have food I would make myself sick because I wouldn’t want it in me. “
(Image: BBC)
She went on to explain that it got to the stage where she was “passing out” by the side of the stage during performances.
Dianne added: “It had come to a point where I couldn’t go any further, I was passing out outside of stage, my body felt like it was almost starting to shut down.
“I went straight to a doctor, had all the tests done and they said my heart was under so much pressure that you could have a heart attack.
“There’s still that slight voice in the back of your head, I don’t think it ever fully 100% goes away, but it’s the way that I deal with it now that is so much stronger and healthier and better for me.”
If you’re worried about your health or the health of somebody else, you can contact SEED eating disorder support service on 01482 718130 or on their website.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
