TEEN FEARED WATER COULD MAKE HER PUT ON WEIGHT
Award-winning student tells of her battle with eating disorder
H ER weight dropped to six stone after she became afraid of food and drink – but now student Savannah Lloyd is helping others with her mental health blog. Savannah, 19, suffers from anxiety, depression and an eating disorder which consumed her life as a young teenager and left her feeling isolated and self harming on a regular basis.
At the age of 15 she was left not wanting to drink water because it might cause her to put on weight and, during the course of 10 months, she lost four stone and weighed only six stone.
Savannah, from Trinant in Caerphilly, said: “I wasn’t able to go to social occasions and not be anxious, which prevented me from doing anything, like socialising with friends.
“When I had the eating disorder I had no life at all, I would stay in the house and it was quite isolating.
“It started off when I went on a diet, just trying to cut down on junk foods and I found websites which encouraged that behaviour.
“I was restricting eating until it got to not wanting to have water because there might be calories in it and being afraid of food and drink, and exercising every minute of the day.
“It took about 14 months for people to realise what I was doing because I was really good at being secretive and pretending I was eating.”
Savannah’s condition remained undiagnosed for many months but after reading mental health blogs, she realised she wasn’t alone in the way she felt.
Savannah, who no longer keeps pictures of herself when she was at her lowest weight as she doesn’t want to be triggered by them or for them to set her back, said: “I think the blogs made me realise there was a problem. Other people around me brought upp there re was a problem but I pushed it off. I readd these blogs and it t made it easier to ac- cept help.”
The Oxford Brookes s University student,, who reads early child- hood studies, begann writing her own blog, called Saving Savannah, in 2015, to talk k about her own journeyy and to help others bat- tling mental illness.
“I realised reading the e blogs I wasn’t alone and d I related to other people e and it makes you moree confident about yourselff because other people e have done it,” said Sa- vannah.
“I like to provide peo- ple with information n about certain conditions and I talk about my own personal nal experiences and opinions which people e can relate to.”
She is also a published author, , a blogger with the HuffHuffffffington Post and has made a short movie on social anxiety which featured on ITV.
Savannahannah was recently presented with the Young Person Award at the St David Awards.
Savannahannah said: “It was overwhelminghelming to win the award but I am happy people are seeing my work.”
Speakingaking about her condition now, Savannah added: : “I have learned to manage ge it but some monthss are worse than others so it’s about findingg a balance.
“Physicallyysically I am recoveredd but it still does affect ffect me mentally. it’s t’s about having thatat control.”
Visit the blog at savingsavannah. gsavannah. org/