Billie Piper speaks candidly about eating disorder battle which saw her collapse

Billie Piper has bravely spoken about living with an eating disorder and anxiety, which saw her turn to therapy.  The actress has shared that at the height of her struggles with her mental health, her mother took her to see a therapist following a short stint in hospital.  Billie, 38, has written a frank essay about her journey, detailing the time she collapsed in a central London nightclub over 20 years ago.  The singer turned actress passed out while at Bar 38 in Covent Garden back in 1996.  At the time she said that the incident "came as a bit of a shock."  The former Doctor Who star said she was phoned by her publicist who informed her an eyewitness had seen her "foaming at the mouth".  Writing in Elle UK, Billie said: "My 'dramatic turn' – as I liked to call it – was a result of days of Diet Cokes and Marlboro Lights fuelling a very active eating disorder, cystitis that crept up my back and into my kidneys, a goblet of sweet white wine and a mind and body dissociation that I feared for the very first time.  "Following that sojourn in hospital, my mother dragged me to a local therapist.  "I took immediate offence when the therapist asked me if my not eating was because I wanted to be a boy. Ridiculous, I thought. I left."  The former Doctor Who actress went on to say: "My anxiety, my need to achieve, my obsession with outdoing myself at every juncture has been a running theme in my life.  "Later, this need to achieve and control and be the best version of myself morphed into an eating disorder, then later into what I can only describe as an addiction to work.  "Now being aware of that propensity means I can, to an extent, do something about it."  Billie has previously spoken about her eating disorder, admitting that during her years as a teenage pop sensation, she used to look at pictures of "skinny models" to "spur" her on.  In her autobiography, Growing Pains, she recalled overhearing being called "fat" at the BRIT Awards, which led her to cut out junk food before later "cutting everything out".  She added: "To make the hunger pangs go away, I used to punch my stomach hard.  "I searched out pictures of skinny models to spur me on. Normal-sized women seemed revolting to me."   The March issue of ELLE UK is on sale from 04 February 2021.   If you're worried about your health or the health of somebody else, you can contact SEED eating disorder support service on 01482 718130 or on their website.