A woman who drank only Diet Coke and laxatives saw her weight go from morbidly obese to being anorexic.
Natalie Bradley, 32, ended up being admitted to hospital shortly before the country went into lockdown as she tried obsessively to control her weight.
Weeks went by when the only thing she’d eat or drink was cans of Diet Coke.
She would go to the gym twice a day and was addicted to laxatives to the point where she was taking an entire box a day.
As her heart rate began plunging from normal levels to dropping to the 30s and 40s, Natalie would often faint and collapse.
She says her doctor had even warned that she could contract sepsis on her foot from how hard she was pushing herself in the gym.
She told the Manchester Evening News : “I went from being nearly 19 stone to seven and a half stone in 15 months.
“I just couldn’t stop. It was getting to the point that if I was to carry on I would have died.”
She first wanted to lose weight because of all the health complications she faced as a result of being morbidly obese.
But she was too big for dental treatment, she was on crutches, had prediabetes, sleep apnea, and a bad back.
She was taking morphine for her back pain but when she overdosed on it she realised something needed to change.
“I started off with eating healthy, gentle exercise, but I got obsessed,“ Natalie said.
At first losing weight felt good. Losing more weight felt even better.
However, she then started feeling worse, and however much weight she lost, it just didn't feel like enough.
Natalie went from wearing clothes in sizes 22 and 24 clothes to sizes 4 and 6.
She was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital at just 16 and struggled with her mental health and weight and spent the next 10 years in and out of hospital.
Natalie hit an all time low when she was taken back into hospital in February 2020.
And then March hit. Lockdown happened. And everything changed for Natalie.
“I had to slow down,” she said.
Suddenly Natalie couldn’t go to the gym. She couldn’t just pop to the shops to buy more laxatives. She couldn’t obsessively control her weight in the ways she was used to. She had no other option but to sort herself out.
Now, she is a healthy weight, and with the support of social workers and charities, has been able to teach herself how to deal with and control her thoughts.
Women of Worth, a charity run by women for women, offered telephone support and a one-to ones.
“Their support was and is priceless,“ Natalie said.
BIG in Mental Health, runs supports groups for people in Bury, Greater Manchester, with mental health problems. However during lockdown, Natalie was able to receive support from them over the phone.
At first she found it difficult to develop healthy eating habits and would only eat certain foods such as jelly, fruit, chocolate and sweets.
In the midst of lockdown this was especially difficult, with people panic-buying and some of the food she relied on selling out in supermarkets.
“I had to find alternatives and face my fear. I feared, and still do, food shopping, but did and do it anyway,“ she said.
“They thought I would be leaving in a wooden box,” Natalie said, of the psychiatric hospital she spent 10 years at.
“I never thought the pandemic would save me.”
Natalie now volunteers at BIG in Mental Health - the charity that helped her for so many years.
She works on the charity’s support line, ringing up people to check on them, and makes arts and crafts to sell to raise money.
“I want to give something back to the people who have helped me during lockdown,” she said.
Natalie says it is only now that has come out the other side that she’s able to acknowledge just how ill she was.
“I just didn’t realise. It wasn’t sinking in. I’d go to bed and think ‘I’m not going to wake up in the morning’
“I battle daily with my mental health, I have done most my life but that's who I am and I am not ashamed. I'm still here, alive and love helping others.“
Natalie hopes that her story will inspire others who struggle with eating disorders.
“Recovery is possible. It’s definitely possible. Don’t give up. I don’t want to be patronising and say ‘if I can do it anyone can do it’. But just don’t give up. Recovery is possible. Face your fears and don't give up.“
