Callum's story

Callum tells his inspirational story of recovery from anorexia in this honest and emotional interview.

Watch as he details his struggle to come to terms with the idea he needed support, his experiences as an inpatient at Life Works, and where he finds himself post-treatment today.

Early experiences with an eating disorder

"My whole life, I had big problems with self confidence, self esteem, all that. And basically I got braces and they sent me, they took me over the edge and I just sort of spiralled down, started losing a bit of weight here and there to the point where I'd like half my body weight gone from about 95, 100 kilos down to 40, and didn't really know what I was doing." 

"Always the whole journey down was saying to myself, I'd pick myself back up, you know, just lost a bit too much weight and never really did. Something clicked in that journey down and could never pull myself back out." 

"And basically, since then, I was at university doing a couple of master's degrees and pushed people away. So had a big social life at the start and ended up, you know, I've had ten years of having no friends and no social life, living by myself the whole time. But after probably five or six years, it became quite obvious that even though I was saying I was going to put on weight, I wasn't, and it's getting worse and worse." 

Trying to beat it on his own

"So I sort of said, okay, I've got a problem, I need to do something. So I admitted that I had anorexia. And so I said, yeah, I've got anorexia, I've admitted it. This is just when I finished my first master's degree. So I finished that despite the fact that I was not, well, not seeing anyone, didn't go to my final graduation because I had no friends or anything, and then sort of finished that and said, right, I need to get something sorted."

"So I sort of admitted it, but didn't do anything about it, just thought I'd try and battle it a bit myself. So, yeah, I finished the second masters, passed that with a distinction, everything, despite being really unwell still, and decided I was going to see someone. So I started seeing the NHS use that time, sort of convincing people around me, lying to them, saying that I was getting better, to the point where I was just like, I'm done with this. It's too much work. I think I can beat this myself. So I was like, well, I'll go to Australia, you know, it'll be a big change."

"So I moved out to Australia. Moving away is going to be the thing that kickstarts me to get better. And I loved Australia, loved moving out there, was so happy living there, and discovered hospitality, which I was doing on the side while I was doing an architecture job, and decided I loved the hospitality job more. So I pursued that and was, yeah, sort of living the dream."

"Tell my family oh, I'm happy I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But, you know, underneath there was still the disorder, but just noticing every day that I was saying to myself, okay, today, you're not gonna do that, you're not gonna do this, you're not gonna do that.

"Probably a month into me doing that and realising that I was saving myself every single day, I just sort of cracked, was just like, no, I need to get this sorted. I need to fix myself." 

Returning home to get inpatient treatment

"So that night I called my mom and dad, like midnight for them in the morning and said, I'm coming home, I'm leaving. I need to do impatient. I need to do something serious. I'm not strong enough to beat it with an outpatient system. I need to come in and, yeah, we found the Priory found here and got it all booked up."

"And about two weeks after I got back home, I came here. It's been life changing. Like, one thing I've learned is, although it's a 28 day programme, yeah, that's the start. You know, they don't fix you in this at all. They just give you the tools, prepare you for beating it and, yeah, it's been pretty scary, pretty hard. But, you know, I just threw myself at it and was like, right. I used to love food. You know, I'm in hospitality. It's one of my passions is food and drink and things."

"So it gave me the chance to actually start enjoying food again. And I've loved the journey. Like, I've really. Just. The change in me has been immense. The therapy, like all the therapists, are absolutely amazing."

"If you're in that state, if you are suffering from it, it'll change. It'll change you. You've got to come in and you've got to be prepared to change. And it's hard, it's full on. You'll be absolutely exhausted at the end of every day. It's really motivated me to get on my life and excited me about the rest of my life."