A student who almost died as a result of anorexia and saw her weight plummet to five stone has shared shocking pictures in a bid to encourage others to seek help.
Hannah Koestler, 22, wanted to show the ‘grim reality’ of the devastating illness by posting pictures of her emaciated body connected to a feeding tube – when doctors warned she was just days away from death.
Hannah’s candid posts have gained her 120,000 followers on Instagram and she receives dozens of messages a day from people suffering from eating disorders themselves.
Hannah wanted to show the ‘grim reality’ of anorexia by posting pictures of her body connected to a feeding tube – when doctors warned she was just days away from death
Recovery: Hannah’s posts have gained her 120,000 followers on Instagram and she receives dozens of messages a day from people suffering from eating disorders themselves
Hannah, who has now recovered at a healthy size eight and with a healthy BMI of 19, says at one point she was living off just three rice crackers a day and was the size of a 10-year-old child.
Where a healthy BMI is between 18 and 24, Hannah’s dropped to 11, meaning she was dangerously underweight.
Hannah, who is 5ft 11in, said: ‘I know that the pictures are graphic, but they’re my journey and we shouldn’t shy away from the truth.
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‘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 during the grip of her anorexia when her BMI dropped to 11. She says at one point she was living off just three rice crackers a day and was the size of a 10-year-old child
Getting better: Hannah has now recovered, at a healthy size eight and with a healthy BMI of 19
Hannah was left with organ failure and hair loss as a result of her extreme dieting.
She believes her anorexia may have been 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 Hannah felt she couldn’t control what school she went to, or how long her friendships lasted, 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.’
While at the treatment centre, doctors treated Hannah by helping her change her relationship with food. Whenever she ate a meal, she was rewarded with fun activities like horse riding
Hannah (July 2013) enjoyed horse riding as part of her recovery. The student, said: ‘I know that the pictures are graphic, but they’re my journey and we shouldn’t shy away from the truth’
She was eventually 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, she 2011 had dropped from 10 stone 2 lbs and a dress size ten to 8 stone 5 lbs, and a dress size 6. Her worried parents took her to a doctor, but she struggled to get effective treatment.
Hannah said: ‘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 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 admits to being exceptionally picky, and would scream and even bite her mother if she was forced to eat something she didn’t want to. On one occasion, she threw an entire plate of noodles at her because she sprinkled some parmesan on the meal.
Reflecting on her illness, Hannah said: ‘Anorexia is a cruel illness that ravishes the body and mind. I hope that my pictures will deter other people from developing eating disorders’
Hannah is now fit and healthy for the first time in years. She said: ‘Looking at old pictures always brings back all the memories of what happened to me, but I’ve never been happier’
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 that 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 turned out to be the worst decision Hannah could make; for as soon as she was alone, she restricted herself to just 100 calories a day and was living off vegetables, three rice biscuits and one glass of water a day.
‘I became so obsessed with my weight, I would weigh myself up to ten times a day,’ she said.
Hannah started her international baccalaureate during her stay in the treatment centre, saying: ‘I didn’t want to be restricted by my illness, so got stuck into finishing my diploma’
Moving on: Hannah passed her exams and was discharged from the Therapiezentrum Weidenhof clinic in November 2013
Hannah’s grandfather kept an eye on her in Austria while her parents had gone back to live in Japan thousands of miles away. But in August 2012, after not hearing from her in a few days, he contacted the police.
Hannah recalled: ‘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 said. ‘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 mental health had not – and three weeks, later she was admitted to an eating disorder clinic who could provide the special treatment she needed.
Around 2013, following her discharge from the treatment centre, Hannah began to enjoy food, taking up a purely vegan diet and consuming large amounts of healthy foods
‘I really learned to recover, not just because people were telling me to, but because i actually wanted to,’ she said.
Hannah spent ten months at the clinic recovering and was educated on food and nutrition. Doctors treated her by helping her change her relationship with food. Whenever she ate a meal, she was rewarded with fun activities like horse riding.
While staying at the treatment centre, Hannah decided she needed a distraction.
‘I wanted to complete my international baccalaureate so I could go to university when I was recovered,’ she explained. ‘I didn’t want to be restricted by my illness, so got stuck into finishing my diploma.’
Incredibly, she 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 England to study engineering at the University of Warwick.
Hannah said: ‘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’
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 pictures of her. She recently told her followers: ‘I don’t want to hide or feel ashamed for the biggest battle I faced, just because it is thankfully no longer a part of me.’
Two years on, Hannah has amassed over 120,000 followers. ‘I receive messages from people who want to thank me for helping them with their recovery from anorexia every day,’ she said.
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 her 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.’
For more information, or for help and advice around eating disorders, visit b-eat.co.uk