Bulimia Recovery Story: How My Healing Began

For most of my childhood, teenage years and early adulthood, I lived with a deep sense of shame and not feeling good enough.

This showed up in my relationship with food, my body, and myself. What began as dieting gradually became more obsessive and destructive, eventually leading to binge eating and bulimia.

Like many women, I believed the problem was my body. I thought that if I could just lose weight, be more disciplined, or have more control, everything would feel okay.

But it never did.

The Moment Something Shifted

There were many moments that shaped my recovery, but one that stands out was watching a woman named Rudine share her experience of anorexia on The Oprah Show.

I recognised something of myself in her story, the pain, the struggle, and the disconnection.

When I later learned that she had died, something shifted in me.

I remember thinking clearly:

I need help, or I am going to die.

It was one of the first moments where I could no longer ignore what was happening inside me.

Looking Back Through a Trauma Lens

Looking back now as a psychotherapist, and having undertaken many years of psychotherapy, I understand that my struggles with food were never just about food.

They were connected to a much deeper experience of suffering with low self-worth, of carrying shame, and of not knowing how to be with my feelings or needs.

For many women, emotional eating, binge eating and disordered eating are often rooted in earlier experiences, including trauma, attachment disruptions and childhood emotional neglect, and can develop as ways of coping with unmet emotional needs. 

At the time, I didn’t have that language. I only knew that something needed to change.

The Turning Point

While Oprah and the stories she shared opened something in me, the moment I truly acted came a little later.

I was in Ireland, swimming with a wild dolphin named Fungi. It was a powerful and deeply moving experience, one that brought me into contact with myself in a way I hadn’t felt before.

Shortly after that, I reached out for help and began weekly psychotherapy. That was the beginning of my recovery.

You can read more about that experience here. 

From Trying to Control to Trying to Understand

One of the most important shifts in my healing was moving away from trying to control or fix my eating, and instead becoming curious about it.

Rather than asking “what is wrong with me?”, the question became: What is this trying to show me?

Over time, I came to understand that my relationship with food, body and weight was connected to deeper emotional and relational patterns.

This understanding now forms the foundation of the work I do with women.

You Are Not Broken

If there is one thing I know now, it is this:

You are not broken.

The patterns you are struggling with, whether that is emotional eating, binge eating, or feeling not good enough, make sense in the context of your life.

They are not failures. They are adaptations. And they can change.

Working Together

Today, as a psychotherapist, I support women to explore the deeper layers beneath emotional eating, trauma and low self-worth.

This work is not about quick fixes or symptom control. It is about understanding, compassion, and reconnecting with yourself in a more meaningful way.

If you are struggling with your relationship with food, your body, or a deeper sense of not feeling good enough, you are not alone.

If you feel ready to begin, you are welcome to reach out.