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.
She was in such poor condition doctors and nurses were
astonished she was still alive.
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.
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