Name: 【TEDx】'Over It', My Battle With Anorexia | Dave Chawner | TEDxClapham
Uploaded: 2016-01-25T22:00:00.000Z
Duration: 15 min 53 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello, my name is Dave and I am an anorexic.

I have been recovering from anorexia for the past eight or nine years;

Before we kick off, I am very comfortable talking about this.

I do not want anyone to be awkward or kind of cringing.

I will be honest; I do not even have a strong bladder.

That is what this is for. It is just a massive TENA pad.

If you saw me in the street, you are not going to think,

You would be right because I have been veggie for a while now.

There is a really good reason that I bring it up.

There are 1.6 million people in the UK that suffer with eating disorders.

Probably more, because a lot of people feel embarrassed to talk about it.

A lot of people do not realise that they are suffering,

A lot of my friends, when I slipped into all of this,

asked me how I was losing so much weight so quickly,

of the Atkins diet, coupled with being vegetarian.

and I love the unique ability that comedy has to reach people.

I really wanted to use that in order to help,

and in order to change how we see mental health.

It was a really tricky one because I had to be funny,

When we took it on tour to the Leicester Comedy Festival,

one of the first reviews said that the bit I did on bulimia was too, "Gag-heavy".

It is like saying a show on domestic violence lacks punchlines.

I want to promote change, especially towards mental health,

because we have not changed our attitude in the UK to mental health

Then we would have freak shows, now we have reality TV.

We just have not come that far, and I wanted to use that.

I will never forget the first time that I ever tried this in a show.

It was awkward. It was horrible, it was awkward, everyone was really...

After the show, a woman came up to me, and she stood there, and she said,

"You were not really anorexic, were you?"

I could not help but think, "Are you calling me fat?"

She just turned around, and she walked off.

I thought, "I have offended this woman," and that is the last thing I want to do.

Then five minutes later, she came back, and she stood there, and she said,

"I can help you. I can help you get over this."

Then from behind her back, she produced a packet of crisps.

Like the answer to this neurological, psychological, mental health disorder

how little people actually know about this.

and I had just got the lead role in a play.

I am a very left-wing person, I am very liberal.

The only thing I cannot tolerate is gluten.

I got this role in this play, and I had to appear topless.

I guess it was the first time that I have ever had to think about my body.

I decided to lose a little bit of weight.

I just did the usual thing; cut out snacking.

I just had three meals, and I lost a bit of weight.

Wanted to lose more, so I cut out breakfast,

just had two meals, lost a bit of weight.

and then cut out breakfast and dinner and just had tea,

It was a great way to save money on food bills.

Although what I did lose in weight, I also lost in Nectar points.

As I lost the weight, something incredible happened,

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【TEDx】'Over It', My Battle With Anorexia | Dave Chawner | TEDxClapham

bit

absolutely

mental

want