I went on a diet but it soon turned horribly wrong. I stopped eating around others and I started to restrict everything that I ate. I started to feel really bad and only ate dinner each day even though I was doing so much exercise with my Irish dancing, gymnastics and school work.

I then had to move schools and that was so sad as I had to leave my good friends. I am a very shy person - it was so hard for me to make new friends at the new school. This added to the stress in my life and my eating went from bad to worse. We had to do an assignment at school on eating disorders.

At the age of 15 my family was falling apart. I tried sharing it with my two closest friends and instead of being there for me they decided to tell the rest of the school. I shut down, I didn't go to school unless I was forced to. I started self harming and stealing alcohol from my mother's cupboard. At the age of 16, I started smoking pot. Then I met someone who was a little older and they made me realise that I didn't need pot to be happy.

It's really difficult to talk about, especially if you aren't heterosexual. At school, I could never get changed in front of other girls without getting really nervous. I distanced myself from other people because I was worried about what they would say. My father thought I was lying and just trying to be 'cool'.

They took my happiness away and made me feel like I was small and insignificant. People always tried to tell me that it would get better, that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. But I never believed them – instead, I always believed the people that threw words at me like they didn’t hurt.