How school bullies forced young woman into battle with anorexia, and her incredible recovery

Melbourne woman Elle Lietzow is living proof that you can hit rock bottom, and survive - even flourish.

The 21-year-old has battled an eating disorder since being bullied at primary school, when classmates teased her by calling her a "fat whale".

That bullying triggered an obsessiveness around weight loss and food restriction that spiralled out of control in her teenage years, culminating in a series of hospitalisations - at her sickest she weighed a life-threatening 34 kilograms - as well as a failed suicide attempt that would ironically kickstart her journey of recovery.

On Thursday morning the aspiring model posted a set of now-and-then photographs to Facebook showing what she looked like at her thinnest and what she looks like now - healthy, confident and comfortable with her body for the first time since she was a child.

The response was immediate, positive, and overwhelmingly supportive.

"I actually can't believe how thin I was, how sick I was," she told Yahoo7.

"I just couldn't see it. I thought I was just thin, 'normal' thin. When I see people in the street now that look like I did, I just feel so sorry for them. I know what they're going through and I know how hard it is to get better."

After being bullied at school, Lietzow joined a swimming team, began losing weight naturally, and then the bullying stopped - but by that stage, the seeds for her anorexia had already been sown.

She began to train more, and by the age of 15 she was restricting her diet, obsessively calorie-counting and exercising.

"It's not like people didn't know I had a problem," she said of her highschool days.

"My school friends saw me become anorexic, then rapidly gain weight through binge-eating junk food. I gained weight in the incorrect way. I wasn't mentally recovered."

The following year, Lietzow relapsed into anorexia. "I decided to start eating healthy, but it only lasted for a week before I began to get really obsessive," she said.

"From that I spiralled back into my eating disorder. It was so much worse than before - the weight was just falling off."

She began to skip school because she had no energy or concentration. "I could barely keep my eyes open; I didn't want to be there. I was pushing my friends away; I could have failed my final year of school but because I was keeping up with my schoolwork at home, I actually passed."

Lietzow said the private Melbourne school she attended was "supportive" and "hands-on", but there was little staff could do to help her overcome her eating disorder.

"I'm not sure schools are really equipped to know what to do, how to deal with people struggling with eating disorders," she said.

"There's no system in place for it. Not even the school nurse can do anything about it - unless you faint, but I never fainted at school."

Lietzow's recovery began at 18, but it has been a long and difficult road.

After a number of hospitalisations she decided there was "no way" she was ever going back, so she decided to go vegan and eat healthily -but once again, an obsessive approach took over, and she was back on a dangerous rollercoaster ride.

Lietzow said she only ate fruit for two years; she was maintaining a weight of 45kgs - thin, but not extreme - so it was assumed she was getting better.

But her illness had taken such a toll, both mentally and physically, that in March last year she tried to take her own life.

"I am actually very lucky to be alive, because I was placed in a coma for 20 days and on last-minute life support for five days. I had been struggling with depression, anxiety - all the things that come along with an eating disorder."

Lietzkow had blood poisoning and pneumonia. She required a pipe to be inserted under her left ribcage to drain fluid that had been built up around her lung.

She couldn't go under general anaesthetic because of the risk of her airways closing, so the pipe had to be inserted while she was still awake.

"It was the most excruciating pain I've ever had in my whole entire life," she said.

It was at that point Lietzow decided things finally had to change. Since then, she has begun documenting her journey via Instagram and YouTube as she slowly rebuilds her life and her health.

On Friday she walked into a Melbourne modelling agency that had once sent her away because she was too thin - and she was immediately re-signed.

"I was so scared of what people would say about my weight now," she said.

"I had to wait until I was in the right headspace to do it. And today, even though I am now what they would call a 'curve model', they're keeping me, they're going to re-shoot my portfolio for an upcoming spring fashion week in Melbourne".

In the age of social media, where bullying can be face-to-face or behind the anonymity of a computer screen, Lietzow says the online world can be both positive and negative.

"Social media can be dangerous; people actually advertise that they have an eating disorder online," she said.

"I used to look at a lot of 'pro-anorexia' accounts online; I got better when I deleted all of those images I was seeing and stopped following those sick accounts.

"I believe you become who you follow. I came across the #bodypositivity movement on Instagram, where women celebrate and accept their bodies.

"I realise now that as long as you're healthy and happy within yourself, that's all that matters."

If you or someone you know is struggling mentally contact Lifeline for support on 131 114.
For more information on eating disorders, go to The Butterfly Foundation'''