Katriona O'Sullivan is a psychologist at Maynooth University and the author of Poor, her memoir of growing up in extreme poverty. She has been at the lowest weight of her life, had a gastric band and tried two GLP-1s. None of it made her like her body.
In this conversation she traces why. Abuse in childhood left her believing, as a little girl, that her body had made it happen, and the world seemed to agree. At sixteen, with a new baby, she joined WeightWatchers, where a woman clapped when she starved herself for a week. Her new book, Hungry: A Biography of My Body, is about that hunger and what it cost her.
She and Laura also talk about GLP-1s and what they are doing to body positivity, meeting Oprah, talking to her sons about porn and consent, 22 years in recovery, dancing at Electric Picnic at 50, and the deaths of both her parents. And why, after all of it, she says the greatest success of her life is the love she has at home.
"The trauma met society"
Childhood sexual abuse made Katriona turn on her body and believe it had caused what happened, and a world that values girls for how they look confirmed it.
Clapped for starving herself
At sixteen, with a new baby, she joined WeightWatchers and found the approval she was missing in a room that applauded every half pound lost.
A smaller body didn't fix it
She has been at her ideal weight and had a gastric band, and was still driven to be smaller, because getting thinner does not quiet what goes on inside.
GLP-1s silence the "food noise", and that is not the whole story
She has tried two and calls the quiet a gift, but believes they should go to people whose weight is causing a medical condition, not to anyone unhappy with their size.
Body positivity is going backwards
She has watched influencers who preached acceptance shrink, and says an industry profits from women not liking themselves.
Stay calm when your child says they've seen porn
When one of her sons told her at 13 or 14, she chose to keep the conversation open rather than react and close it down.
22 years in recovery, not recovered
She hasn't drunk or taken drugs in 22 years and says sobriety has never felt like a loss.
Her dad's death showed her she was loved
Watching him die was the hardest thing she has been through, and afterwards she realised her husband would carry her when she couldn't walk.
Hungry: A Biography of My Body
Katriona's new book on trauma, dieting and learning to like her body
Katriona's memoir of growing up in poverty
Katriona's programme taking students from disadvantaged schools into university STEM
Nikita Hand's book, which Katriona mentions
Free, confidential 24-hour helpline: 1800 77 8888
00:00 — Welcome to The Laura Dowling Experience
04:56 — Never again without her own orgasm
08:52 — Talking to her sons about porn and consent
11:19 — Meeting Oprah, and the WeightWatchers board
13:55 — GLP-1s and the end of body positivity
21:44 — A gastric band, two GLP-1s, and still not liking her body
24:15 — "The trauma met society"
27:22 — She joined Weight Watchers at 16
41:37 — 22 years in recovery
46:03 — Electric Picnic at 50
51:55 — What her dad's death taught her
58:35 — When her mum died
1:04:54 — Three pieces of advice for young people
1:07:25 — The meaning of life is love
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