In the kitchen of Mr Reshiivarma’s family home, there used to be a small space between the dining table and the washing machine that he would often retreat to after school.

Those dark days, beginning in late 2018, never seemed to end.

His mother, Madam Krishnaveni, would often find him hiding there – her once-cheerful son swaddled in a thickening fog of sadness. 

The then 18-year-old student at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) would say little, except to tell her from time to time: “I want to die, I want to die.”

His family could not comprehend his despair. It was only several months later that he revealed to his mother that he had been bullied since he was in secondary school and now at work, and was struggling to cope. 

But for more than a year, he did not get help because neither he nor his parents knew how truly affected he was. 

‘Anorexia was my best friend’: Why youth turn to eating disorders to cope

Ms Lee Yue Er’s most striking childhood memory was that of her parents shouting and fighting while she sat on the floor crying.

As an only child, she had no one to turn to for help. She was in lower primary school then. A sense of abandonment and confusion plagued her childhood, said Ms Lee, now a 21-year-old nursing student, in an interview with The Straits Times.

At the age of 11, her emotional turmoil churned into a more destructive force. A self-professed “shy kid”, she faced friendship problems in school.

She began starving herself because food was the only thing she felt she could control.

“Hunger was a source of comfort. When my weight dropped, I felt satisfaction,” said Ms Lee, who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa when she was 14.

The mental health condition is characterised by an abnormally low body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight. Another common eating disorder is bulimia nervosa, which involves binge eating, then purging.