An anorexic teenager was
just hours from death after taking no food and water for a week in a desperate
bid to become popular at school.
Ellen
Lietzow, then 17, refused to let even a drop of water touch her lips at the
height of her struggle with anorexia, when her weight plummeted to under five
and a half stone.
After a week of fasting she collapsed with a seizure and
was rushed to hospital.
Shockingly,
Elle admitted to losing weight because she thought that being skinny would make
her popular amongst her peers.
She
said: “I wanted to stay skinny just to be accepted by everyone. I had gained so
many friends when I lost weight accidentally during my swimming and everyone
would compliment me.I
thought, if I quit swimming I am going to have to keep that low weight so that
people would still want to be my friends, because if I gain weight no one would
want to be my friend anymore.Elle,
now 19, from Melbourne, Australia, was cruelly taunted by her peers as a young
girl.
Although
she was just a few pounds overweight, school kids would kick and push her and
chant ‘fat whale’ as she walked through the playground.
After
joining the swimming team her strenuous training schedule of six hours a day
meant she lost her extra weight and gained lots of friends.
But
the punishing regime took a toll on her burgeoning social life.
Although she reached the
Olympic swimming trails at the age of 15, Elle decided to give up on the sport
and focus on school and her friends.
Elle
overcompensated for the loss of her swimming by working out for two hours
before school and going on long hikes near her home.
She started to eat just
fish and vegetables but as her disorder worsened she would eat only steamed
cabbage and just the skin of an apple.
In just two months, Elle lost over two
stone from her slight frame and was hospitalized for the first time.
Her
family and friends nagged her to gain weight, leading Elle to binge on tubs of
icing, slabs of chocolate, boxes of doughnuts and huge wedges of cake.

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