'He called me weak and something inside me just flipped'
07.04.2024 - 08:23
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
An anorexia survivor who weighed just four stone at her lightest hopes to become a personal trainer after turning her life around in an incredible recovery.
Lauren Dorling spent five years completely bedbound after her eating disorder pushed her to the brink of death several times.
Lauren, who lives in Altrincham, was just 16 when she decided to change her diet to “tone up” her muscles.
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The decision came after she overheard her dance teachers talking about other students’ personal appearances.
But Lauren’s new lifestyle quickly spiralled out of control – seeing her over-exercising to burn off any calories she had consumed that day.
Having dropped two stone in just one month, Lauren decided to take a two-month break from dancing to get herself back to a healthy weight.
But anorexia meant she never got better – the eating disorder consuming her life for the next 15 years.
“I’ve had anorexia my entire adult life,” Lauren, who works as a copywriter, told the Manchester Evening News.
“It was a mix of things – I was a dancer, so the industry is prevalent for eating disorders. I was horrifically bullied as my family moved around a lot so I was always an outsider and a foreigner.
“There were a lot of things in the mix that could have caused it – but it took me by surprise. It really floored me.”
At the height of her illness, Lauren was eating just one bowl of porridge a day and never consumed more than 200 calories. Some days, she wouldn’t eat anything at all.
She eventually became so weak she developed temporary paralysis and lost the ability to walk, meaning her parents had to pick her up and carry her around.
By the age of 21, Lauren