Hi,
Thank you for your letter telling me how you have been feeling recently.
It sounds like you are starting to become more aware of how you look and feel and this could be down to you being in puberty, which is a process all young people go through between the ages of 10 and 18. During this process lots of changes take place both physically and emotionally in the body and it can take a long time to adjust to these changes which are different for everybody. Find out more about what happens to boys during puberty.
You also said that you are being called names by people. This is a form of bullying and I want to let you know that what these people are doing to you is wrong, as nobody has the right to call you names. You might want to tell an adult about it, perhaps a teacher that you trust at school, or someone in your family. so that you can get some help to stop this happening. There is also a bullying website which you might like to have a look at called Bullying.UK. There are ideas and suggestions on there which you might like to try to help you cope and keep safe.
When you say that you have not been touching your food and you have been hurting yourself, I am wondering if these are things that you find are helping you to cope with the bullying and your feelings? It is important that you eat a healthy balanced diet and you can find out more about this on the NHS 5 a day website. It is also important that you keep safe when you are self harming and you can find out more about this on the Self-harm page on the ChildLine website.
You have been brave to start talking about all these things and I would like to encourage you to continue talking about them. You could speak to a Childline counsellor on 0800 1111, or by a 1-2-1 online chat or by sending an email.
Take care,
Sam