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Anorexia is like being in hell, says Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston said he hoped his own experience of poor mental health could help his children thrive (Ian West/PA)
Christopher Eccleston said he hoped his own experience of poor mental health could help his children thrive (Ian West/PA)

Christopher Eccleston has said that his ongoing battle with anorexia is “like being in hell”.

The former Doctor Who actor, 55, opened up about his experience of the eating disorder and depression in his autobiography I Love The Bones Of You, released last year.

The actor told the Guardian that the condition affected him “every minute. All you think about is food – the consumption of, the rejection of. You don’t think about anything else”.

Eccleston, who spent his 52nd birthday on a psychiatric ward, also said he had considered killing himself but that the thought of his children had stopped him.

“I did have what people might call intrusive thoughts,” he said.

“I think cowardice played a part too. I thought: ‘That’s gotta hurt’. Sorry to be crass.”

Eccleston was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, and shares two children, Albert and Esme, with his ex-wife Mischka.

He said he hoped his own experience of poor mental health could help his children thrive.

“I do feel that going through my own hell can benefit my kids,” he said.

“I know how extreme I’ve been in my life in the search for identity and self. And so I’m prepared for them to go seriously off-piste, as people do, and not panic or make it all about myself.

“I didn’t want Albert and Esme to ever feel there was anything they couldn’t talk to me about.

“Not in the way that I felt I couldn’t talk to anybody. Nobody should go through that.”