Hannah Koestler, now 22, told how she wanted to show the “grim reality” of the devastating illness by posting distressing photographs of her skeletal body connected to a feeding tube online
The brave student, whose BMI had dropped to just 11, now has 120,000 followers on Instagram and receives dozens of messages a day from people suffering from eating disorders.
Hannah, who is 5ft 11 and now a healthy size eight having recovered from her anorexia, admitted at one stage she was living off three rice crackers a day and was the dress size of a 10-year-old child.
Where a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index) is between 18 and 24, Hannah dropped to 11, meaning she was dangerously underweight.
She is now back up to a healthy BMI of 19 and hopes her journey will encourage other sufferers to reach out.
Hannah said: “I know that the pictures are graphic, but they’re my journey and we shouldn’t shy away from the truth.
“Anorexia is a cruel illness that ravishes the body and mind.
“I hope that my pictures will deter other people from developing eating disorders and inspire those in its grips to get help.
“Looking at old pictures always brings back all the memories of what happened to me, but I’ve never been happier than I am now and I want people to know that.”
Hannah was left with organ failure and hair loss as a result of her extreme dieting.
She believes her anorexia was triggered by her family constantly being on the move as a teen.
While she was originally born in Austria, by the time she was a teenager she had already lived in America, China, South Korea and Japan.
When she couldn’t control what school she went to or how long her friendships lasted, Hannah said she began to take solace in controlling what she could eat.
She explained: “I started eating very healthy, unprocessed foods and cut out junk food completely.
“It became more and more selective, and soon I was completely eliminating fats and eating very minimal carbs.
“Soon I only felt comfortable eating vegetables and steamed tofu.”
She was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in November 2011 while she was completing her final exams for high school in Japan, aged 17.
Between September and November 2011, she dropped from 10st 2 and a dress size 10 to 8st 5 and a dress size six.
Her worried parents took her to the doctors but she struggled to get effective treatment.
Hannah recalled: “They just told my mum to cook for me and watch me eat every meal, but it didn’t work because I was so fussy about what I would and would not eat.”
In a desperate bid to help her daughter, her mum would even drive to her school and sit with Hannah while she ate her lunch and snacks.
Hannah told how she was exceptionally picky and would scream and even bite her mum if she was forced to eat something she didn’t want to.
On one occasion she threw an entire plate of noodles at her mum because she sprinkled some Parmesan on the meal.
Hannah said: “My mum did the best that she could, I am so grateful for everything she did, otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am now.
“Thankfully my mum was able to distinguish between who I am and who my eating disorder was making me be.”
In 2012, when she was 18, Hannah convinced her parents she was well enough to live by herself in Austria, having been able to maintain a BMI of 17.
She said: “While my parents didn’t believe that I was healthy enough to live on my own I had told them it was my choice, and they couldn’t stop me.”
But it was the worst decision Hannah could have made, as once alone she restricted herself to just 100 calories a day on a diet of vegetables, three rice biscuits and one glass of water.
She explained: “I became so obsessed with my weight I would weigh myself up to ten times a day.”
Hannah’s grandfather was keeping an eye on her in Austria while her parents had gone back to live in Japan thousands of miles away.
After not hearing from her in a few days, he contacted the police in August 2012.
She said: “They knocked down the door of my flat and found me in a seriously bad way.
“The next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed, connected to feeding tubes.”
She was later admitted to intensive care at The Vienna General Hospital to kick-start her recovery.
“Doctors told me I was days away from death,” she recalled.
“For two weeks I was basically knocked out, but when I eventually came to I felt extremely depressed.”
Five months later she was discharged from hospital, having managed to increase her BMI to a level that was not life-threatening.
But although her body had recovered, her mind hadn’t and just three weeks later she was admitted to an eating disorder clinic that could give her the special treatment she needed.
Hannah admitted: “I really learned to recover not just because people were telling me to, but because I actually wanted to.”
She spent 10 months at the clinic and was educated on food and nutrition.
Doctors treated her by helping her change her relationship with food.
If she ate a meal, she was rewarded with fun activities like horse riding.
While at the treatment centre, she decided she needed a distraction.
She said: “I wanted to complete my international baccalaureate so I could go to university when I was recovered.
“I didn’t want to be restricted by my illness, so got stuck into finishing my diploma.”
Incredibly, Hannah passed her exams and was discharged from the Therapiezentrum Weidenhof clinic in November 2013.
Hannah began to enjoy food, taking up a purely vegan diet and consuming large amounts of healthy foods.
In September 2014, Hannah moved to the UK to study engineering at the University of Warwick.
Around this time she set up an Instagram account, Prosperous Healthy Life, where she began to document her anorexia recovery and post healthy meals and pics of herself.
Now, two years on, Hannah has over 120,000 followers.
She explained: “I receive messages from people who want to thank me for helping them with their recovery from anorexia every day.”
Now Hannah is the vice president of the engineering society at University as well as a member of the rowing team.
She said: “Starting university in the UK was my best decision ever.
“Now that I’ve been in one place for three years I have felt like I could build a community of friends.
“I will continue to post pictures of my anorexia battle and healthy meals.
“To know that I’ve helped just one person online makes such a difference.
“Anorexia is a horrible illness and one people should be talking about.”
Source: thesun.co.uk
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