OMG, there are some truly nasty, vile and cruel people out there!

I made the mistake of checking out some of the comments on the online version of yesterday's Daily Mail article which featured our story of battling to get my son, Ben, through anorexia. (At the moment, the online version is behind a paywall but  you can read a full transcript on my website here.)

I only read a few of the (so far nearly 100) comments and they are incredibly cruel, nasty and vile.

I would love to sit all of these horrible people in a room with me, lock the door and force them to hear my story from start to finish.

Or maybe not, because they'd probably heckle me.

I can't even begin to tell you how awful these comments are.

When the newspaper initially contacted me early this month to see if I'd talk to them about boys with eating disorders, I said yes because, despite still suffering from Complex PTSD, I wanted to help other families to:

• recognise the typical symptoms of eating disorders in boys,
• get swift and effective help,
• find resources that can help families like the FEAST website and forum for families of young people with eating disorders (which was a true lifesaver for my son and me),
• know that other parents have "been there" too and that we hate to see other parents facing the horrors of an eating disorder in the family and want to help,
• know that they - the parents - are NOT to blame; parents DO NOT CAUSE EATING DISORDERS (read this excellent article on the FEAST website from January 2025 here), 
  
• know that full recovery from anorexia or bulimia is possible and that they WILL get their son or daughter back,
• that their children can go on to achieve amazing things (my son isn't the only young person with a history of anorexia or bulimia who is now helping others to overcome their mental health battles)
• and also to raise awareness to Society in general that boys get eating disorders as well as girls.

These reasons are why I agreed to do this article.

It has helped people already - I know this because families have started to get in touch with me via my website BevMattocks.co.uk

But I didn't bank on the trolls.

Those nasty, vile, evil people feeling driven, for whatever reason, to comment on my article and slang off me, my son and eating disorders in general as being the parent's fault.

You and I know that this is false - that parents DO NOT CAUSE EATING DISORDERS just like parents don't cause other deadly illnesses that their children may develop.

The Good News is that the remnants of my c-PTSD are making me feel numb at the moment, so these vile comments aren't upsetting me as much as they could be.

That's probably a Good Thing.

But there are some disgusting people out there, aren't there?