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Sunday, 10 December 2006

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Russell Brand: I battled with bulimia

Comedian used to make himself sick to lose weight

Russell Brand hasn’t always been able to fit into his trademark skinny jeans. As a youngster, he used to make himself sick in a desperate bid to lose weight.

‘It’s awful to be bulimic but I lost a whole lot of weight when I needed to,' he admits. 'I was a fat kid, not obese but chubby.’

The troubled comedian, 31, was diagnosed as b-polar [manic depressive] in his teens and took 'Prozac and other things like Prozac for a while'.

Russell found he liked being able to 'switch off' with narcotics and 'took drugs every day from 16 to 27'.

‘I lost all my jobs, all my relationships and became unbearable to be around,’ he tells The Times.

Four years ago Russell's agent forced him to seek help and he gave up heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis, alcohol and tobacco.

He's now the new face of Channel 4 entertainment and keeps slim by practising ashtangha yoga five times a week.

'When I came out of treatment, I was bruised and damaged,' he says. 'Then I got the confidence back, thought I'll have mad hair again. I'll dress weird again.

'I'm constantly working on myself.'

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