According to the Health Research Board’s (HRB) 2020 hospital admissions report, 13% of adult admissions due to an eating disorder were males. And studies have shown that men may account for 25% of those suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa. Based on epidemiological projections, an estimated 188,895 people in Ireland will experience an eating disorder at some point in their lives. It is estimated that approximately 1,757 new cases occur in Ireland each year in the 10-49 age group.

If you have been affected by eating disorders and would like to speak about it please contact Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, is the national voluntary organisation supporting people affected by eating disorders. Their helpline number is: 01 2107906 and email support is: alex@bodywhys.ie If your mental health has been affected please contact The Samaritans at 116 123.

The couple attributes their success to doing it together, having joined Slimming World and attended breaking down their weight loss into manageable goals was crucial, and they educated themselves on nutrition, experimenting with various recipes to keep the journey exciting. .

Attended breaking down their weight loss into manageable goals was crucial, and they educated themselves on nutrition, experimenting with various recipes to keep the journey exciting

Emphasising the importance of enjoying the food you eat, the couple advocates finding joy in the process to prevent feelings of deprivation or depression. Their approach involves daily walks and occasional workouts like Joe Wicks, eschewing expensive gym memberships. Yvonne and Rob credit their improved health and energy to their journey, highlighting its positive impact on their relationship, confidence, and happiness. They stress the significance of the right mindset, achievable goals, small dietary changes, and eliminating excuses for those seeking to lose weight for the summer. Overall, their transformative journey underscores the power of commitment, education, and mutual support in achieving lasting weight loss and a healthier lifestyle.

8 years after starting their journey they have kept the weight off and still attend and support their local Slimming World group in Lucan.

He said he quickly found himself in a destructive “I was very young and naïve to nutrition and nutritional information”. He started realising he had a problem (with eating disorders) when his teammates and managers started passing comments. Having broken the cycle and spoken openly about it Barry says “The amount of people that have gotten in touch with me through social media is amazing.  

Once friends started to notice Darren was encouraged to continue. Over time, Darren became fixated on monitoring his appearance. He nowplans to work as a mentor and guide for other people looking to change part of their lives on his new show, You Are What You Wear.

Three months’ residential treatment helped Eoin change his life. In hindsight he can see how he felt out of control in the world. “For me the eating disorder became a tool I used to give me confidence; it was false confidence.

I continue with weekly talk therapy that I started four years ago. Talking solves a lot of our problems and we don’t do enough of it. Also I have discovered what gives me value in life. During in-patient treatment for three months, I was able to discover what makes me who I am and what I want to do. That, for me, was having shared experiences with people and being collaborative, and that’s what I do now on a daily basis.

She told her.ie “I was going into treatment and believing that I didn’t deserve to be there, that I wasn’t sick enough. That’s what an eating disorder does, it twists everything, on your deathbed, you’ll still be thinking that you’re fine.” Having spent time in Beaumont Hospital she was discharged to a community mental health service, that does not specialise in eating disorders

Amanda finished the article by saying she “is finding it hard to stay on track. Right now, she’s on a meal plan, seeing a dietician, and soon she’s due another appointment with her team.”

Speaking to the Irish Mirror they said “ she decided to get serious and set herself a goal, documenting her journey on social media. “I’d given up, when I realised I was at rock bottom I stopped. “I wasn’t thinking of the physical side of things anymore, the mental battle had become the hardest thing for me.” Trisha had begun to avoid friends. I’d arrange to meet for coffee and then cancel, I didn’t want to see anyone. “I thought everyone was judging meIt was the first Christmas I struggled at work, every chance I had I was sitting down, I decided I was going to finish up my job that I loved because I didn’t feel physically able anymore,”

Now it’s a whole new world. I bought my first dress on sale in Brown Thomas. “I was so delighted I fitted into it, when I went to pay at the till the girl said she followed me on Instagram, that was the coolest moment ever.

She played the titular character in 2015’s My Name Is Emily for which she received an IFTA Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.”

Evanna has been an open advocate for eating disorders having had an eating disorder since the age of 11. She told The Irish Independent “it was a constant battle. I would say, it’s a lifelong battle, You do recover from an eating disorder, you’re always going to have to manage. It’s obviously harder as a teenager when you’re in high school but they’re not necessarily the friends you’ll have for life.” Evanna credits the Harry Potter books for helping her recovery. In fact Evanna’s parents consulted with her doctors to allow her to leave a hospital stay to get the book signed by JK Rowling.

In October 2021 Evanna wrote her autobiography The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and Glory of Growing Up – A Memoir. According to the publishers: It details “her recovery from (an eating disorder) and how the conflict between the comfort of self-destruction and the liberation of creativity still rages inside of her”.

However, she finished by saying “I’m actually the healthiest I’ve ever been… it’s hard then going into show business when you’ve suddenly got photoshoots and you’re on telly, and my weight kind of fluctuates, so you have to kind of talk yourself out of freaking out if there’s a photoshoot coming u

After going to a doctor “Food was slowly reintroduced but the terror of putting weight back on soon turned..It took a very long time for her recovery. This meant repeating the Leaving Cert because she didn’t have the energy for it. However it gradually got better for Clelia, and a year later she appeared on stage in the Gate Theatre where she finally admitted to a stage manager that she had been sick but was now in recovery.

  ‘it got extreme, I wouldn’t go to events,’I cancelled on friends. Anything that would get in the way of me engaging in these sorts of behaviours, I wouldn’t do. I just stopped having any sort of personality, any feeling.’”

Sheila started out on her journey to Ireland Strongest Women by accident when “the girls she was training with in Monaghan were doing it. It wasn’t a straight forward weight lifting competition, bench pressing barbells and the like. Sheila found herself lifting rocks and other natural weights”.

‘`I did Ireland’s Strongest Woman naturals and I came first- I won it! My deadlift would probably be over 140kg, but actually last year I did a different style of deadlift. It’s called the silver dollar. I managed 168kg.”

Sheila’s success has inspired many others who are going through the same issues she is going through, and she only hopes her success will encourage others to focus on their own path to recovery.

Speaking to Off The Ball on Newstalk promoting the Tackle Your Feelings campaign he said “I was so young I just bottled everything up, it was an incredibly tough few years, I went through eating disorders as a result of it..That’s why now though Tackle Your Feelings kids now know that it’s not a weakness to go and talk about these things. I saw pictures of myself from that time and I wouldn’t even recognise myself, it’s scary how much your mental health can manifest into something like that. 

I didn’t realise I was doing anything wrong or had an eating disorder until my family was worried about it. It was the people around me that were in shock, and my schoolmates didn’t know how to ask someone if they’re ok. I can’t remember if there was a certain event that kicked off the recovery, it was more that I could see what my family were doing to help me. I got counselling when I was young and that really helped me to talk to my family and I was able to unload this thing that was inside of me”.

Roz told The Irish Mirror “I hadn’t really planned on putting anything up,it feels like another lifetime & even though I’ve spoken about my food and body struggles here in the past it never gets any easier,” she wrote. “I feel sad looking back, I wasted so many years putting myself down, missing opportunities and worst of all not being around my friends and family. I know I was miserable.” 

I used to always just think this was me, this was just how I would always be towards my body and food……but thankfully that’s just not true.” In recent years, she has turned to therapy, helped change her mindset and adopt a healthier relationship with food and her body and made her appreciate “how important it was for me to change and start being me again”.

When I started sharing my journey and realised there were many people itching to open up about their mental health too I decided to create this website. My goal? To encourage people to open up and share their stories. Let’s end the stigma around mental health.”

He told breakingnews.ie “One of the main points I try to get across is the stereotypical image of an eating disorder, a woman who is maybe very frail or very thin. People don’t think of men, especially men who don’t necessarily look like they have an eating disorder. Body dysmorphia led me to binge, then want to purge that all up, and the cycle would go on and on. That’s been important to me to raise awareness for men.

I stayed silent for 20 years but when I spoke out and realised there was help out there, everything changed. I’m still learning now, I’m far from perfect and never will be, but I’m trying to improve and go in the right direction and that’s all I’m asking of myself now.”

However, when she briefly moved to Australia in 2021, Jess said “I wasn’t planning on sharing too much of my weight gain journey online mostly because I’ve only started to deal with it myself (offline!) and it can be extremely hard to have those conversations with yourself let alone sharing publicly…However the overwhelming support and response I got moved me to tears but more than that my words and experience resonated with many people and again if I can help just one person by shining the spotlight on myself then I want to do that.”

It’s taken years for me to view how I ate as disordered. The first step is wanting to change for yourself not because anyone else says you need to. From there take it day by day it will be uncomfortable at times but what success story doesn’t have setbacks and hard times?”

After being diagnosed with a heart condition at aged 18, eventually requiring a pacemaker, then his Grandfather passed away and a number of things happened in a row for Cormac to spiral out of control. He told the Newstalk “Three surgeries later, and a year out of college to process the trauma, saw Cormac start to slowly slip into issues with eating. He says the slide was very gradual and ‘not sudden or overnight.’ The situation deteriorated over nine years. He describes it as similar to a small problem, which if left to fester, manifests and gets bigger and bigger.

I didn’t know any men with eating disorders, I’d never heard of any men with eating disorders, I’d never heard it spoken of,” he explains. “Eating disorders are extremely serious as many people know, but they are not just a stereotypical female problem. “Plenty of males do suffer with them, and I suppose the isolation that comes from the fact that men don’t talk about them, or it’s not really discussed as a male problem, makes it even worse, and that’s something I massively struggled with. I couldn’t find anything to do with males. I think it was that isolation tha prevented me from seeking help sooner, which is why I’m trying to talk about it a bit more now I suppose.”.