Coming full circle following an eating disorder

There has been a “progressive increase” in hospital admission rates for children and adults with eating disorders over a five-year period.

Eating disorders are very serious health conditions that affect a person’s body and mind, which can cause upsetting thoughts and feelings about a person’s body, food and weight. The main types are anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder).

In July 2025, the Health Research Board (HRB) reported that, in 2024, hospital admissions for eating disorders were the most common diagnosis among children and adolescents for the second consecutive year, and the report states that admission rates have grown from 18% in 2020 to 26% in 2024.

Dr Fiona Flynn is a Youth Development Manager at Bodywhys, which is the Eating Disorder Association of Ireland. She told the Celt how “increased messaging” particularly in the new year around dieting or commentary about weight and shape “really increases body image pressure”.

“People describe feeling like they ‘should be on a diet’ or ‘it’s everywhere’,” she said, adding that it is “so hard to avoid” diet information at this time of year.

Meanwhile, research indicates that social media is a “dominant source” of appearance-based pressure.

“I think it’s really important to talk about media and social media literacy and to empower young people to be able to think critically about the images they see, to be aware of airbrushing and also to have time to discuss how the media profits from our insecurity,” she said.

Early signs

There are some early signs that somebody may have an eating disorder. She said “avoiding food or anxiety around food” is an “early warning”.

“Maybe the person is refusing certain foods or favourite foods or mentioning calories or fat content,” she said, explaining how they “link guilt to food and may talk about good or bad food”.

She also said someone with an eating disorder “may seem unhappy in general” and start “spending more time on their own”.

“They might be making negative comments about their body or make frequent comments about how other people look compared to themselves,” she said, adding that a person with an ED could become “upset” when trying on clothes or buying new clothes.

When should you be concerned? Dr Flynn says if the person avoids social situations so they don’t have to eat with other people or if they are skipping meals or avoiding food.

“They are ignoring what their body needs or the impact on their health,” she explained, or if they are “obsessing” about food and their weight.

She encourages people to “get advice as soon as possible” if they notice any of the behaviours and contact Bodywhys.

Recovery

“A question I am often asked by parents is, ‘Will my child get fully better?’”

“Yes,” Dr Flynn answers.

“I have been working with Bodywhys a long time and I have met lots of people who have made a full recovery, who now have a positive body image, a positive relationship with food and who are enjoying their lives,” she assures.

Conor Nolan is one such young person who serves as a voice of hope for anybody struggling with an eating disorder. The Blacklion man was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa when he was just 12 years. He has since made a full recovery, and also has a full-time job informing people about the disorder and how to mind their mental health in general.

For him, the eating disorder began just as he was starting secondary school at St Clare’s in Manorhamilton.

“A period of change can be a triggering point because there is a feeling of a lack of control in the external life. They try to re-find that control with their diet, food, exercise and so on,” Conor tells the Celt.

A keen footballer, the now 27 year old recalls how he trained “hard”. However, in hindsight, he now sees that “anorexic tendencies started to kick in”. He became “less concerned with doing well on the pitch” and “more concerned” with his weight and what he was eating.

His weight went below what was healthy. Looking back now, he was almost 13 when he went through the worst phase of the eating disorder, but he believes it began when he was around 11. Speaking from his own experience, he says anorexia is a “very severe illness”, which is also “very stubborn”.

“Family members would have been trying to help me and would have been asking what was wrong. It was very visible that I was losing weight, but you’re very much in denial. You’re pushing the help away because in some sense the dieting and the exercise is a coping mechanism, it’s the only thing that makes you feel good.

“That’s what the eating disorder does, it’s pushing you into a corner where you feel that the only way to feel good is if you’re eating less and moving more, and of course that’s a very dangerous cycle.”

Eventually, Conor’s family intervened and brought him to his GP. After which he attended CAMHS in Sligo for one year, and he also regained weight during this period. It was about three months into this journey that something caused “the penny to drop” with Conor, and he started actively working on his recovery.

“I couldn’t play football at that stage, I couldn’t take part in PE or anything like that. I said if I don’t sort this out now and get the weight back on, my quality of life is never going to return.

“It hit me in the face for the first time what the eating disorder had taken away from me. It was taking away more than it was giving me and I said this has to change.”

From this moment on, he began to cooperate with his councillor, whereas before he was sharing “enough” just to fill the hour-long session.

He advises: “Admitting there’s a problem is the first step, once you do that you will begin to make progress.

“Counselling can change a life and, in my case, it saved a life,” he says.

He admits that his own recovery was relatively fast, and says for others it can happen “at different rates”.

The Cavan man also considers himself “very lucky” to not have had any issues since, although he has learned how anxiety and depression can go “hand in hand” with an eating disorder.

“That’s an ongoing battle even to this day, but I’m very lucky that from a body image perspective and from a body weight perspective, it’s only been up.”

He also says it’s important for friends and family to understand that an eating disorder “is not a choice”.

The “greatest” way you can help the person is to “be understanding”, says Conor.

Like Dr Flynn, he also says that people with eating disorders “can come back to full health” and “often times” they will look back and wonder how they got to that stage; “a great example of the body dysmorphia that comes along with anorexia.”

“If you have a friend or a family member with anorexia and you’re worried about them or they’re showing some of the symptoms of an eating disorder, if you approach them nine times out of ten, you’re going to get a lot of push back. They’re going to deny that there’s a problem.”

He added: “When they have their good days, that’s the person you are talking to. When they have their bad days, that’s the illness.”

Conor continued: “If I could go back and talk to that version of me, as cliche as it sounds, my advice would be to keep going.

“You can recover fully and live a full life in the aftermath without any limitations.”

Conor penned a book about his journey, ‘Normal’, which was released in 2020, during his third year of college studying theoretical physics.

“Last year I bit the bullet and I packed in the software engineering job and I’ve been doing the public speaking since,” he says.

Furthermore, Conor is embarking upon a PHD in the Psychology of Eating Disorders this September.

“It’s all come very full circle, that I am now working in the thing that I suffered with.

“It’s a privilege to be in the full of my health and to have the opportunity to help others that are walking the path that I was on.”

Support

If you think you may have an eating disorder, see your GP as soon as you can. If you’re concerned about somebody else, let them know you’re worried about them and encourage them to see their GP. For advice or support you can call Bodywhys at (01) 2107909. More information on their supports, including the ‘Inside Out’ education programme for schools can be found by searching bodywhys.ie