Twenty-eight-year-old sales assistant Megan* tells CLEO why she became addicted to food and how she has managed to change her behaviour.
"My eating got out of control when the man I thought I'd marry broke up with me. We were together for four years and he left me for a woman he met at work.
I blamed myself. I wasn't pretty enough. I wasn't interesting enough... I began to hate myself.
I stopped going out. I stayed at home and food became my friend. I went from a size 12 to a size 18 in about 18 months.
I felt self-conscious about my weight, so I didn't eat in front of people. When I went out for dinner with friends, I ate something healthy and skipped dessert.
PHOTOS: 'Bad' foods you should eat
At work, I would eat low fat yoghurts and salad wraps. But I'd go to 7-Eleven on the way home and buy family sized bags of crisps, packets of biscuits and chocolate, then I'd take it home and eat it all in one go.
I travelled to different stores to buy food because I didn't want the people behind the check-out knowing my secret. I ate on auto-pilot. I'd start eating a packet of biscuits and suddenly the packet was empty.
Or sometimes I ate really fast because I felt guilty. I kidded myself that if I ate quickly, and the food disappeared, I hadn't really eaten it.
Some days I drove through McDonald's and ate the takeaway in my car, and then drove to KFC or Hungry Jack's and ate another meal. I felt like crap afterwards, sick and disgusted with myself.
Things came to a head at a friend's wedding. I had my photo taken with my friends and I was horrified. I looked like their mother in my size 18 shirt that I'd pinned to stop from gaping open.
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I cried for days but it was the jolt I needed and I found a psychologist to help me. I cried as I talked about my ex, how I blamed myself when he left, how I hated myself and about the food.
It was painful but freeing. I realised that I couldn't find happiness in a box of Krispy Kremes. So I started walking, joined a gym and now, before I eat, I ask myself if I'm hungry or if I'm eating because I'm tired or upset.
I've regained my self-respect, I'm gradually getting my figure back and I'm getting on with my life."
As told to Sarah Marinos.
*Names have been changed.
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