Would it be good if EE tackled this? I believe HO is the only soap to properly do a storyline about the issue to date. We've currently got a cancer storyline, a whodunnit and a potential stalker storyline with Dean and Linda. I think to balance out the types of plots, one relating to body image would be great and hugely effective if handled right. It's the gritty storylines that EE do best.

I've always thought Abi would be a ideal character for this. Especially if Jay ends up cheating on her with Lola.

I think it's time for EE to try brand new storylines.

I always thought Lucy would be given such storyline. No offence to the actress
Runs out of forum*

Hollyoaks in not the only soap to do an anorexia storyline. Emmerdale has just done one with Priya

I agree there. I thought hetti was gorgeous looking but far too thin imo.

I originally thought they were going to go down the bulimia route with Shabnam..

It's almost like British soaps are scared to do an anorexia/bulimia storyline. Anorexia is the mental health illness that causes the most deaths yet soaps haven't really covered it at all, which is a shame because increased awareness of the symptoms and stuff would be really good. Hollyoaks anorexia/bulimia storyline for Hannah was amazing and very well acted, I remember Emma Rigby won best actress at the bsas for it. It's been a few years since, I'm quite surprised Hollyoaks haven't done another anorexia storyline, though I'm not sure it would be as good as Hannah's.

Emmerdale have recently done a pregorexia storyline with Priya, which I watched a little bit of but not much due to being extremely busy at the time. From what I read on here generally people weren't impressed with the storyline. I think although raising awareness of pregorexia is great, perhaps Emmerdale should have attempted just anorexia first.

It shocks me that these are the only anorexia storylines for British soaps (correct me if I'm wrong), you'd expect the two big soaps to do them.

For EastEnders I think Lauren would be a great character to do this storyline because she was addicted to alcohol - anorexia can be seen to also be an addiction, and she seems to have an addictive personality. Abi would also be good, addictive personality running in the family. Whitney could also be good - I remember her saying about how she wrote that 'rot in hell' thing because Lucy had said stuff about her weight and hair.

I think Lucy would have been good for this storyline, I think her using her eating as something to control as she couldn't control anything else would have been good - however, I do not think it would have been fair on the actress to do it, it would just have made the people who say she's anorexia say it more. Some people are just naturally really skinny - do not get why people cannot accept that

I thought so too.

Can they show anorexia/bulimia properly though, without an actor or actress losing a load of weight for the story? Because you know if they start with a character that's been given fake padding, or if they don't look like they've lost weight drastically, the media will slag them off, but if they show someone losing weight and looking more ill, won't the papers give them bad press, and say that they're showing young people how to do it, glamorizing it, etc.?

Hollyoaks was amazing at using Hannah Ashworth and it was very believable

I think Lola would be good to feed her insecurity of thinking that Peter will leave her

a male anorexia SL would be a good one to tackle - many people forget that it happens to men as well as woman and it would be good to highlight it IMO

When they did it with Hannah on HO, they mainly portrayed it through the use of make-up to make her face seem gaunt, as well as baggy clothes. It probably helped that Emma Rigby was thin anyway. I think a certain degree of dramatic license can be used so that the actor doesn't have to do anything stupid to portray the weight loss.

This. Jay would be interesting.

I didn't know they'd actually given it a name! I was pregorexic as it's called.

I lost a stone with my first child and two stone with my second. I weighed just over six stone after his birth and being 5ft 10in I looked bad.

Both my sons were fine btw. Healthy birth weights and are now over six foot healthy middle aged, but thin men.

Even anorexia wasn't named then.

Health professionals do not use the term 'pregorexia', they would just call it anorexia in pregnant women. I think the term has been created by journalists/society as a simpler way of saying anorexia in pregnancy. There's something about the term 'pregorexia' that just sounds daft to me, I think 'pregnancy anorexia' would sound better

Great to hear both your sons had healthy birth weights

Excellent post!

I completely agree - especially with the points regarding the HO storyline and Lucy.

It'd be a ground-breaking storyline for EE since they haven't focused on body image in depth before I believe. I hope Corrie and EE don't think it's seen as too "glamorous" and "young" for them.

Thanks, glad you agree

Hopefully not, if the Corrie or EE storyline writers watched Hannah's anorexia then they would see it wasn't portrayed glamorously, there were parts of that storyline that were quite dark actually. EastEnders being the gritty soap it is, I would expect them to have an anorexia storyline resulting in a character dying - I remember Melissa dying in HO and crying my eyes out. Bryan Kirkwood did this storyline in HO so it surprises me he never thought to do it for EE whilst he was there.

I hope they don't see it as too young, especially as older women have been known to suffer from it too. There seem to be plenty of young actors in both soaps yet their constant young storyline is teenage pregnancy.

It would be nice to see Anorexia covered on EastEnders, it seems like a good storyline for them to do, especially if they use a good actor/actress that would be able to pull it off.

A storyline as such is something expected by a soap such as Hollyoaks because anorexia is classed as something that happens to young people but as mentioned before it does happen at any age.