A grief-stricken daughter turned to drink and developed anorexia and bulimia after the death of her mother, an inquest heard.

Lynda Elder, 30, was found dead at the flat she shared with her partner on April 8 this year.

The inquest at Worthing Hospital heard how unemployed Miss Elder, of Friar Walk, Worthing, had become overcome with grief after the death of her mother in 1994.

Her partner Gordon Swain said: "She had had an eating disorder for years.

Sometimes she would eat and I would manage to get her to keep it down.

"Other days she would throw it all up."

In the weeks leading up to her death she had undergone a detox programme at Worthing Hospital to help her alcohol problem.

Her sister Tracey Oakley, of Palmer Road in Angmering, said the programme appeared to have been a sucess.

She said: "When I last saw her she was in a brilliant frame of mind."

But her partner Gordon said she became more depressed after visiting her mother's grave on Mother's Day in March.

The inquest was told the day before she died she had picked up a prescription of painkillers for a neighbour and taken seven tablets herself.

She and Gordon went for a walk at Highdown but she had collapsed. After the pair had gone home, she fell asleep on the settee.

When Gordon went into the living room to check on her the next morning he found her dead.

A post-mortem revealed she had died from a metabolic imbalance which often affects people with alcohol problems.

West Sussex assistant deputy coroner Martin Milward recorded a verdict of natural causes.