Amina Clayton, who is 19 and lives in Birmingham
Source: BBC
It is coming to the end of Ramadan, when Muslims fast between dawn and sunset for a month.
The 18-hour spiritual fasts are not easy and for some the month can be a difficult challenge, especially for people with eating disorders.
Amina Clayton, who is 19 and lives in Birmingham, is recovering from an eating disorder after having symptoms of both anorexia and bulimia.
She was diagnosed at the age of 16 when she was “hardly eating anything and became very obsessed with exercise”.
Now Ramadan can bring back painful memories.
“The hardest thing about Ramadan is that it’s all centred around food,” she says.
“For me, the fast in the day is easier.
“It’s at night that it’s more difficult when families gather after 18 hours of fasting to break the fast,” she adds.
‘Like a binge’
Amina explains that the problem lay in the fact that she was eating at night and then very early the next morning.
“In a space of five or six hours, that’s all your intake until your next fast begins so it feels like a binge,” she says.
“Of course it’s not a binge as your body needs that energy to fast the next day.”
She says it is important that people with the condition realise that Muslims do not have to fast if they are unwell.
“Last year I didn’t fast at all, and that was a difficult decision to come to because my faith is important to me,” she recalls.
“To realise fasting might be detrimental to my recovery was the right decision though.”
Categories: Europe and Australia, Fasting, Health, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Preventive Medicine