Episode 7 - Diabetics with eating disorders with Jacq Allen

Jacq Allan is the founder and outgoing director of the charity Diabetes With Eating Disorders, the only current charity in the UK that supports and advocates for people that struggle with both type 1 diabetes and any kind of eating disorder. She's been working tirelessly for the past decade to get diabulimia, a condition in which diabetics omit insulin to lose weight, officially recognised as a mental illness as well as other forms of diabetes-related eating disorders. Jacq has lived with type 1 diabetes for 15 years. She has a PhD in psychology and is currently training to be a clinical psychologist with a focus on eating disorders and diabetes.

Jacq is a formidable woman who, despite dealing with a huge amount of grief and her own mental health issues, has fought to make sure that healthcare professionals and charities wake up to the reality of diabulimia and other diabetes related eating disorders. This chat is brutally honest, incredibly emotional and deeply personal.

This conversations is so, so important: 60% of females with type 1 will have experienced a clinically diagnosable eating disorder by the age of 25. It will likely hit you in the heart, and for that reason I urge you to give this one a listen.

Find Jacq on Twitter.
Follow Diabetics with Eating Disorders on Twitter.

Support and Resources
Diabetics with Eating Disorders.
Diabetes UK support forum.
T1 Resources.
Digibete - For Young People and Families with type 1 diabetes.
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
Mind Mental Health