Roz Purcell has revealed she returned to counselling last year, to make sure “old habits didn’t resurface”.
The 30-year-old has been open about her struggles with disordered eating in the past, and admitted the coronavirus lockdown was “triggering” for her.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, the former model said: “It sounds stupid but I’ve never been someone who can have too much time in my own head.”
“I’m an overthinker. I can be quite irrational. I can let thoughts spiral out of control.”
“I think for a lot of people, any past issues you had, lockdown was kind of triggering. It brought up a lot of things, especially for me around disordered eating,” Roz explained.
“I think sometimes when my world feels chaotic, it feels like the one thing I can control. It was about making sure I was keeping on top of that and making sure old habits didn’t resurface.”
“Someone else, a stranger that’s qualified, telling me stuff I already know and have learned before, reiterating the importance of it, does actually help,” she continued.
“Sometimes you need that. Also I think sometimes you need someone to say to you — not a family member, not someone you know — that you need to prioritise this or you’re going to slip back and you don’t want that and that’s why you’re here.”
Speaking about what she learned about herself during lockdown, the Hike Life founder said: “I definitely realised this year that me staying sane had a lot to do with me being around people and me doing things like hiking and being very distracted. And that’s not good either.”
“This year definitely highlighted that there are a lot of external factors in my life that kind of help me to manage, whereas now I’ve had to find stuff in my house.”
“I found during 2020 — I can’t say much about 2021 — but my creativity has gone down quite a lot because I’m not getting inspired by anything. I’m not meeting new people, I’m not going to new places. I’ve found it really hard,” she confessed.
“I understand that sounds so ridiculous. I’m very lucky. I have a lovely house. I have my boyfriend there. I haven’t lost anyone. I do try to put it into perspective that 2020 hasn’t been great for my mind, but at the same time everyone is safe and healthy.”
“There’s been so much loss this year and grief. I’ve been really, really lucky. Everyone’s experience has been different,” Roz continued.
“My year hasn’t been bad or good but it’s just been a strange year, I suppose. I’ve learned a lot in that I probably need to look inside a little bit when it comes to managing and not always be looking for external factors to cope.”
