Our amazing son, Ben, is an example of how full recovery from anorexia is possible. Not only this, but our sons and daughters can go on to do amazing things with their lives!
Today Ben is 31 years old with a string of brilliant academic qualifications and is using his experiences of anorexia as a teenager to help others. It took some time for the anorexia to disappear completely
For years, during Ben's 20s, I found myself saying that Ben was 'almost' recovered. Kind of 98-per-cent there. Ben himself backs this up as he says the remnants of the dying eating disorder lasted longer than I, his mum, realised.
What finally drove the eating disorder out of his life?
After graduating with a 'First' in his BA History degree followed by an MA in Medieval History, Ben worked in advertising for a while. He then decided to train as a teacher. However, part-way through the course, the Covid Pandemic struck which put paid to face-to-face lectures, seminars and work experience.
Around this time, Ben also split up with his long-time girlfriend and returned home to live with us.
The breakup, the isolation of Covid lock downs and the remnants of the eating disorder led to Ben getting very depressed, unsure what to do with his life. It was a worrying time for all of us.
The school nurse comes to the rescue... again!I'd kept in touch with the lovely school nurse who'd been so central to helping Ben during his final three years at school when his anorexia was at its worst. She was also friends with both of us on social media so she'd got an inkling that things weren't right.
She recommended a therapist which Ben went on to work with for several months, over Zoom, because of Covid.
It was this wonderful therapist who helped Ben to drive out the final remnants of the eating disorder - and she helped with his depression as well as helping him to think about what he'd like to do next in life.
A career in mental health beckons
One of my social media friends from the eating disorder community knew someone who'd retrained as a mental health therapist through what is known as a 'Conversion Degree'.
By this stage Ben was pretty much fully recovered, thanks to the help he'd received from his amazing therapist, and was feeling a need to use his own mental health experiences to help others.
I researched 'Conversion Degrees' and discovered that a local university was offering a MSc (Conversion) in Psychology for graduates with unrelated degrees, like Ben's History degree.
Ben got accepted onto the course and one year later graduated with a Distinction plus 98-per-cent for his dissertation study into Compassionate Mind Therapy (CMT).
Also, spending a year studying mental health, and especially Compassionate Mind Therapy, helped him to finally drive out any remaining tiny remnants of the eating disorder - for good.
I could have wept buckets at his graduation - my husband and I were SOOOO proud of him!
Fully recovered and working in mental health services
Today, in 2025, Ben is fully recovered and working in mental health services, using his experiences to help others. He wants to go on to train as a therapist - or perhaps get involved in some groundbreaking mental health research. But whatever he chooses to do, he is one-hundred-per-cent committed to helping others with their mental health struggles.
Ben is an incredible young man who's been through hell and come out the other side. He is proof that there really can be hope and that full recovery from a deadly eating disorder is possible.
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