Watch the distressing moment a 15-year-old girl suffering from anorexia breaks down while trying to eat a slice of avocado toast as her heartbroken mother reveals why NO ONE will help her daughter who repeatedly asks ‘why won’t you let me die’
- Melbourne mum Melinda Walker has spoken about daughter’s anorexia battle
- Ms Walker said her 15-year-old daughter was unable to be admitted to hospital
- Chloe started restricting her food intake during Melbourne’s Covid lockdown
The mother of a 15-year-old girl suffering from anorexia has revealed her daughter’s tragic story after the teenager was unable to be admitted to hospital because she was deemed not unwell enough.
Melinda Walker spoke to A Current Affair on Monday night, where confronting footage showed daughter Chloe breaking down in tears as she refused to eat the avocado on toast that was made for her lunch.
Ms Walker said it was a daily struggle getting Chloe to eat food, with the teenager resorting to hitting and scratching herself during meal times, forcing her mother to intervene and restrain her daughter.
‘I’m just so angry, and my head is screaming at me, and I don’t know what to do,’ Chloe said.
‘If I do eat then if I hurt myself it kind of compensates for it.’
In confronting footage aired on the program, Chloe broke down in tears as she refused to eat the avocado on toast that was made for her lunch
Her mother will drive her to the beach even though it’s only a short walk away because after 10 minutes on the sand Chloe gets too cold
Chloe said she started counting calories and restricting her food intake during Melbourne’s Covid lockdown last year.
‘I was bored and started exercising a lot and… wanted to eat healthier… and then it all just kind of snowballed from there,’ she said.
‘I started counting calories, and restricting my food and exercising a lot when I was tired and didn’t have the energy to, I just forced myself to.’
Ms Walker said she turned to several hospitals on a number of different occasions to get help for her daughter but said she was sent back home because they could not treat Chloe, making the teenager feel ‘unwanted’.
‘The hospitals and doctors just keep saying “we’ve done it this way for so long”… but we’ve had lots of changes. We used to be smacked as kids, we used to not wear seatbelts as kids,’ she said.
‘Just because it’s been done that way for so long, why can’t it change?’
Ms Walker said she had turned to a number of different hospitals on several occasions for help but Chloe was turned away because she was deemed not unwell enough
Chloe spends most of her time at home doing crosswords and playing card games after developing anorexia.
Her mother will drive her to the beach even though it’s only a short walk away because after 10 minutes on the sand Chloe gets too cold.
She can’t go out with her friends because they’re eating and walking around together – and if she is invited to parties the teenager doesn’t stay for long.
‘She’s probably been at school for about 10 hours all year. How is this considered a healthy child by the medical system?,’ Ms Walker said.
She said she found it difficult to hear her daughter say every day ‘Please just let me kill myself. Why wont you let me die?’.
Ms Walker said she has to intervene to stop Chloe from hitting herself during meal times
Calls to the Butterfly Foundation, which provides support for eating disorders and body image issues, increased by 57 per cent last year.
Former Australian of the Year and psychiatrist specialising in youth mental health, Professor Patrick McGorry, said anorexia had been neglected by the government for a long time.
‘It wouldn’t happen with any other health condition, you wouldn’t be abandoned like that – told you’re too complicated for the GP, but you’re not sick enough to see a specialist. That doesn’t happen in any other area of healthcare,’ Professor McGorry said.
Ms Walker posted on Facebook recently that Chloe was admitted to hospital late last week with the help of her daughter’s paediatrician.
‘I don’t really have any hope at the moment. I want to get through it, but at the same time, I don’t have the energy to, and I don’t really want to eat to get through it,’ Chloe said.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Butterfly Foundation 1800 33 4673