Being urinated on by a bully started my 30-year battle with bulimia

At school, Scott Harrison, now 50, was badly bullied from the age of seven until he left at 16. The ordeal made him bulimic for 30 years, until he went on a mission to get a six-pack, then conquered his eating disorder and became a celebrity personal trainer. Now he lives in Hertfordshire with wife Victoria, 39, a nutritionist, and their three children Scarlett, 14, Hugo, 11 and Jaspar, three.

On holiday with my wife Victoria, we were helping ourselves to the all-you-could eat buffet and it was delicious. Meats, cheese, bread, pasta, we filled our plates and were having a great time.

Half an hour after the meal, I excused myself from the table and went to the bathroom where I stuck my fingers down my throat, bringing up all the food I’d eaten. The release was immediate. The anxious knot I felt in my chest disappeared and I felt a huge relief as I made my way back to the table.

I could see by my wife’s expression that she knew something was wrong. My face was red, my eyes were watering. I mentioned something about having to blow my nose. But she knew and I knew that I was lying. This was all a part of my bulimia, a battle I had fought since childhood.

Difficult childhood

Growing up in Essex, I was a confident little kid, despite having a turbulent start in life. Mum and Dad had a troubled marriage and my mum left my dad when I was around four years old. I remember always treading on eggshells around them at home and it was a relief to go and live with my mum. But at school, I was outspoken, sociable and always trying to make people laugh.

When I was around seven years old, I was prescribed glasses for shortsightedness. Children will find any weakness to bully others and suddenly I was the little boy with the glasses and side parting who loved musicals and martial arts rather than football. They would call me 'gay boy' and said I looked like Adrian Mole. But I laughed it off, my confidence never wavering. Perhaps that’s why the bullying worsened over the years.

Triggering my bulimia

When I arrived at senior school at 13, I was still the gawky kid in glasses. But that Christmas, I started wearing contact lenses. And my dad bought me a leather jacket and I gelled my hair back. Returning to school in the new term, no one recognised me. It felt great. Girls were looking at me in a whole new light. It felt like a scene in a movie as they watched me walking down the corridor. I loved the attention.

But some of the boys were not too happy about my change of appearance. There was one particularly large kid – and his cousin – who mercilessly bullied me. First it was calling me names, then they would be 'in my face' all the time. It never got physically violent. But once or twice, when we were hanging out outside school the main bully urinated on me. I’d quickly walk away, humiliated. I never retaliated, but I constantly felt scared and weak.

It was around this time that I began making myself vomit. I felt as if there was a blockage of food stuck in my chest and needed to clear it. The feeling was overwhelming. I couldn’t get on with my day if I couldn’t get rid of it. So I would sneak into the park, stick my fingers down my throat and throw up. The 'release' I felt after doing it, was intense.

It became a routine. Every day, I would eat and vomit, eat and vomit. It was never about weight loss – in fact, strangely my weight stayed pretty much the same in those early years – but all about control. I had no control over the bullies making my life hell, but I could control this.

Starting adult life

The bullying continued until I left school at 16. I went to work as a trader in the City which turned out to be one of the best things I did. I loved that job and was proud that I was earning so much more money than all those kids who had bullied me. Life was good and although I was still bulimic, it wasn’t nearly so bad.

I married my first wife in my early thirties, but the marriage only lasted 16 months. I knew it was wrong from the beginning and I think she did too.

But in my mid-thirties, I met Victoria and settled down. I was so much happier but my bulimia never left me and I’d binge and purge, binge and purge. At all-you-can-eat buffets, I’d fill my face and then go into the toilets and throw up. My friends knew about it but they just thought it was part of my character – Scott would eat and then throw up. And Victoria must have known the truth. But it was something we simply didn’t speak about and I’m not sure why. It was like a taboo.

I began to pile on weight in my late 30s, the combination of eating too much and not enough exercise. I was about 14 stone (89kg) and at 5ft 9ins (1.75m) it’s not hugely overweight but I felt it.

Turning point

One day in December 2015, I was picking up the children from school and I was looking at the mums and dads outside the gate and it struck me how obese many of them were. Their knees were buckling, they looked unhealthy and as their young children raced towards them, I realised how bad it looked. Then I realised I was one of them.

In the New Year, I vowed to do something about my weight and my health. I had anxiety, my sleep and skin were all over the place. I was still throwing up regularly.

So I vowed to get a six-pack in 90 days. The reason I chose a six-pack rather than say, losing a certain amount of weight, is that I really believe in visualisation. If I can see something in my mind, I can achieve it. I decided to blog about it and asked if anyone wanted to join me on my mission.

To my surprise, 36 other people wanted to change with me. At this point, I was really winging it. I started to watch what I ate, focusing on nutritionally dense foods such as salmon, chicken and eggs that would fuel and sustain me rather than just picking at convenience foods.

I also began training my body by running and doing weights. The results were amazing. Within those 90 days, I became lean and fit and while only dropping a stone and a half (9.5kg), I almost halved my body fat and got a six-pack. What’s more, so did 19 of the other people who’d joined me!

Beating bulimia

But one other thing happened. My bulimia disappeared overnight. I no longer felt the need to throw up after eating. Because I was so focussed on eating healthy, I was aware that every nutrient, every calorie was working to help my body, not work against it. Why would I throw up a healthy, nutritious meal of say, protein and vegetables that was going to fuel me and help my body gain muscle? The gnawing blockage of food that I used to feel in my gut disappeared almost overnight. It was incredible.

I started sleeping better. My anxiety disappeared. Others on the programme told me that their conditions – everything from eczema to Crohn’s disease – were more manageable. The programme was really helping to change lives.

I haven’t looked back. I co-owned a double glazing company at the time which had a turnover of £18m. But I knew it was time to take a gamble. I left my job and trained to build up the business I have today with celebrity clients such as Rylan and Sara Cox.

I’ve employed a whole team of people including GPs and psychologists who have helped tens of thousands of people across the globe to nourish their bodies and get healthy again.

The fact that my bulimia disappeared was an added bonus and I’m very fortunate that health tests show it hasn’t damaged my body long-term. My heart and organs are healthy. Even my teeth – which can rot away in bulimics due to the acid in vomit – are very healthy.

But those 30 years of bulimia have helped me understand others with eating disorders too. A lot of men in particular don’t want to talk about their eating disorders with others but they will talk to me because I’m open about my own experiences. Men contact me via social media to tell me they’re struggling and I’m always happy to chat to them.

I look back now at the bullies who hounded me in school and I’m actually grateful to them for making me the person I am today and giving me a job I love. I once saw one of my bullies on Facebook and that sense of weakness and fear came flooding back, right into my throat. But I thought, 'I’m not scared of you anymore. Look at your life and then look at mine. I’ve got a beautiful wife and three children, I’m healthy and happy – you didn’t win. I did.'

Scott Harrison is founder of acclaimed fitness programme The Six Pack Revolution. His Sunday Times bestseller Eat Your Way to a Six Pack is out now. You can follow Scott on Instagram at @thesixpackrevolution.

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