Woman Chronicles Long-Term Damage Caused by Anorexia: 'I Had the Spine of an 80-Year-Old and I Was 21' (Exclusive)

After spending the past seven years dealing with health issues due to anorexia, a young woman is sending a warning about the long-term effects of eating disorders.

Niamh O’Connor recently spoke to PEOPLE about her struggle and ongoing recovery with anorexia. The 24-year-old from West Midlands, U.K., says she experienced warning signs of her unhealthy relationship with food and body image as early as 12 years old. However, she wasn’t diagnosed with anorexia until age 17, when it “completely took over my life.” 

“I was always a high achiever and a perfectionist. And when I started to lose weight in an attempt to be as healthy as possible, I realized this was something I could be good at,” she tells PEOPLE. “I quickly became addicted to seeing the number on the scale go down. It felt like an achievement, and no matter how much I lost, I still wanted to keep going.” 

O’Connor says she became “obsessive” with her weight loss, and it quickly took a toll on her mental health.

“Although I would get a short-lived high whenever I weighed myself, it was draining,” she explains. “I quickly realized that there was no endpoint because each time I’d reach my goal weight, there would be a new, lower one. That felt quite hopeless. And I felt so alone.”

“I didn’t talk to anyone about it because I didn’t think it was that much of an issue. I didn’t think I had an eating disorder because in my eyes, I wasn’t that bad. I was also trying to hold down this illusion of a normal life,” she continues, noting that she tried to maintain her everyday activities like sports, volunteering and applying for college.

O’Connor lost nearly half of her body weight at the time. Members of her family gently shared their concerns about her health but she says they didn’t want to be “too pushy” because the family was simultaneously dealing with other stressful matters.

“But then it got to the point where they had to intervene,” she says. “My family was terrified of what was happening, and my teachers were threatening to contact social services. My two closest friends even sat me down one day and had a conversation with me about their concerns.”

“I don’t think I would’ve sought help of my own accord; I just went along with it to appease people’s worries,” she adds. 

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O’Connor says that although she expected it to take just a few months, her recovery has been ongoing since her diagnosis seven years ago. She was admitted to hospitals that specialized in recovery from eating disorders but admits she initially resisted treatment because she did not want to gain weight.

“I spent the next four years mostly in various hospitals, being discharged for no more than three months at a time before my weight would deteriorate so badly that I needed urgent re-admission,” O’Connor shares, noting that she also tried several forms of therapies “but nothing seemed to work.”

“It’s only been in the last 3 years that I’ve really made an effort to shift my mindset – each time I got readmitted to hospital I was more poorly than the last, and I realized that my body wouldn’t survive this for much longer,” she says. “I have seen this illness take the lives of friends along the way and it’s heartbreaking. So I forced myself to at least give it a try.”

O’Connor says she now surrounds herself with media that promotes a healthy relationship with food, exercise and weight, in addition to working with a psychotherapist to help her challenge the beliefs of her eating disorder. When she reached a healthier weight, O’Connor also started going to the gym again, which she loves. But she works with a personal trainer to ensure that she doesn’t “go too far.” 

“This is the way I manage now – although I am far from recovered, I make sure there is support in place to help me keep my health stable so that I can live a fulfilling life again,” she says.

Although she’s much healthier, the content creator says there are “several lasting effects” of her eating disorder.

“My heart was damaged, my kidneys were damaged, my fertility was affected and the last bone scan I had basically showed that I had the spine of an 80-year-old woman and I was 21 years old at the time,” O’Connor explained on TikTok.

“My skin, hair and teeth have all been negatively affected, my immune system’s been impacted,” she continued. “My whole digestive system is chronically damaged. I also have chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as a result of the years of me abusing my body.”

O’Connor says she now takes medications daily in order to strengthen her bones and digestive system due to years of malnutrition. And although she’s maintained a healthy weight, she understands that it’s still a mental challenge moving forward.

“I still get very anxious and stressed about food a lot of the time. My body image has never really improved, and there are some days when it completely takes over and it’s like I’m back to square one,” she tells PEOPLE. “But I am better equipped to manage it now.”

Now a student nurse, O’Connor believes the harm anorexia did to her body has inspired her to share her story publicly in recent years.

“I turned to social media for some sort of support, to feel less alone,” she says. “I saw other people sharing their thoughts, their journey, and some of it was really helpful to me, so I thought maybe me sharing my own experience had the potential to help others.”

“I just want to be a source of support for people who need it, and challenge stereotypes around diet and eating disorders, so that others don’t have to struggle the way I have done,” O’Connor adds. 

If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.