‘It’s like another voice living within your body,’ says woman battling anorexia half her life
‘It’s like another voice living within your body’ – Lauren Gaffney on battling anorexia half her life
It was a routine medical check-up for a school trip abroad that first alerted Lauren Gaffney’s parents to the fact she was an unhealthy weight.
“My mum and dad knew that I was struggling in ways, but we always thought, ‘Lauren’s quite athletic and just slim’, not realising that it was an issue,” she told the Irish Independent.
The 26-year-old from Julianstown, Co Meath, has been living with anorexia for half her life. Although she developed the eating disorder at the age of 13, after starting secondary school, she was “never really aware of it, as such”.
She was officially diagnosed at the age of 15, when her weight loss became more evident. “I was due to go abroad with school for a legal competition I was involved with,” she said.
“The school contacted my parents to ask if I could get medical checked to check my fitness for travelling abroad, and that’s what sparked things.” Her GP recommended urgent treatment. She says it is hard to pinpoint what exactly triggered her disorder but remembers feeling isolated and being bullied in school.
She said there needs to be a lot more awareness as eating disorders are “not just an issue with food”, which is only “the surface level”. “It’s like another voice, another person living within your body who is controlling you.”
