Diabulimia: The eating disorder dubbed ‘world’s most dangerous’

When Lawrence Smith was a teenager, he developed an eating disorder known as diabulimia.

It is a condition where people with type 1 diabetes deliberately reduce their insulin intake to lose weight.

Lawrence, a former Royal Conservatoire of Scotland student, said that recovery was made difficult by the “siloed” nature of the diabetes and mental health services.

“With diabetes, there’s so much importance placed on the numbers of things – measuring your units of insulin, measuring your carbohydrate intake.

“The eating disorder services are like – ‘Don’t read the labels, don’t read the food packages’.”

Now, new guidelines published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland aim to ensure better support is available for people living with both conditions.

The recommendations include urgent or early referral to eating disorder services for people with diabetes – something Lawrence is an advocate for.

“The danger with diabetes is it’s so easy for things to go wrong, cataclysmically, really, really quickly… as opposed to maybe other disorders [where] it’s an accumulation of time,” he said.

Returning to his former university and looking back on the years when he struggled with diabulimia, Lawrence said: “I’m fortunate to be so far along in my recovery that I can reflect upon it.”

He added that he hoped by talking about the condition, he could help others living with it to feel less alone.