By Rebecca Drew
MEET the teenager who has beaten her eating disorder after cruel taunts from bullies lead to her starving herself to the point of death.
Lina Baier (15) from Germany was hospitalised when her weight dropped to just 4st 5lbs and was fed through tubes to her nose.
Despite this, she still didn’t want to be healthy and says that she was “obsessed” with being thin and would force herself to be sick.
Now a healthy 8st 2lbs, Lina says that she lost all of her friends due to her disorder and one day realised that she didn’t like who she was and wrote a note to promise her mother to get better.
“As soon as I ate something I felt terrible and I put my finger in my throat to vomit,” explained Lina.
“I felt proud of myself if I could jog for two hours and go swimming afterwards, I didn’t eat for eight days and then I passed out, they sent me to hospital for recovery.
“I was fed artificial food with tubes going through my nose to my stomach and I had to go to therapy but I never wanted to be healthy again. I was obsessed with getting thinner and thinner.
“My doctor told me that I was going to die soon and my mother always cried, she couldn’t sleep as she was awake all night to see if I was still breathing.
“Everyone around me was sad, I lost all my friends and I changed into a cold-hearted person.
“One day I finally wrote a message to my mother, I told her, ”mum I want to go to a clinic or else I will die”, we went to a clinic in Munich and from there I decided to gain weight.”
Lina credits overcoming her illness with making her more mature and focussed on the future, but says that she found coping with her changing body the hardest when recovering.
“It made me think more about my future and what I want to be in future, my decision to fight with an eating disorder shaped my new life and made me proud of who I am today,” she added.
“I use sport as a tool for me to fight my eating disorder, healthy diet and sports are my priorities in life.
“Eating more was never an issue but thinking about the consequences was the biggest issue.
“Gaining weight and fighting with the psychology of consuming more that can lead to gaining massive legs or getting a softer face was the most difficult challenge.”
Lina now wants to encourage others who are suffering with an eating disorder to seek help.
“I advise people who are suffering from eating disorders to motivate themselves to go to a clinic and stay there no matter how difficult it is and to take the path towards getting better.
“I felt it with my soul and heart how difficult it is but you have to stay on the course and keep pushing.
“My message to the world is to love yourself and accept yourself the way you are.
“We only have one body to live in, so we should take care of it.”
For more information see https://www.instagram.com/lina_lifts/
