Gemma Oaten's weight dropped to just four and a half stone in the height of her anorexia battle.

Gemma Oaten

Gemma Oaten

The former 'Emmerdale' star battled with the eating disorder when she was younger and credits her family for saving her life.

Speaking at a gala for charity SEED in London, she shared: "If it wasn't for my dad, I would be dead. He was right. I just wanted it all to end. Had my dad not taken me home from the psychiatric unit, I would have died. The memories of my time in hospital were very bleak and full of despair.

"I found myself in quite scary situations. I had things thrown at my head, I'd have people discussing in detail how they were abused, people cutting themselves in front of me. It was horrendous. I wasn't showing any signs of psychosis, I was just a young girl suffering from an illness and, yes, it was a mental health illness but it is very different to somebody who is schizophrenic or who cut herself.

"It all went wrong because it focused on getting the calories down me and not dealing with the reason I was struggling with an eating disorder. In the end my parents made the decision to take me out of there when they found out what was going on."

Gemma previously admitted she suffered with body dysmorphia from the age of 10.

Speaking in 2015, she said: "I have a vivid memory of getting out of the bath when I was 10 and looking down and at my body, and asking my dad, 'Am I fat?'"


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