A woman who had anorexia has described how she was compelled to walk 70,000 steps a day at university during her four-year battle with the eating disorder.

Emily Hale, from Maidstone, celebrated after successfully completing her treatment programme and securing a job at a Cygnet Health Care hospital – where exactly one year ago she had been an inpatient.

The 23-year-old was first diagnosed with an eating disorder when she was 18.

Emily says she was planning on going on a gap year to Thailand with her friends and was getting injections at her GP for the trip.

She said: “As I was leaving, I turned around to this support worker and said ‘I think I need some help'.

“Things had been getting worse and worse, and in that one moment I just decided to ask.

“It was a relief, as things had been bad for a long time.

"People at work noticed I wasn’t really great, they had stopped asking me to do tasks because I would get forgetful.

“My hair was thinner and my skin was dry all the time. After having a shower I would have to sit down on my bedroom floor because the heat would make me feel really faint.

Within two days after an appointment with her doctor, Emily was admitted to inpatient care.

After nine weeks she was discharged and started studying Psychology at Canterbury University. However in her third year she began to relapse.

"I didn't go to any lectures," she explained. "My mind wasn't all there."

"I would walk 70,000 steps a day. It was a bit of weight control and what my brain was telling me I had to do.

“It's really isolating, and it takes up every minute of everyday – thinking about how you are going to eat less or when you are going to exercise more.

“It takes away from friendships, family, and spending time with others because you are preoccupied."

Emily went back into inpatient care at Cygnet Hospital Ealing last September.

She completed a four-month treatment programme for her eating disorder, which involved a meal plan, support and fun activities including cooking, quiz nights and yoga.

'I would walk 70,000 steps a day. It was a bit of weight control and what my brain was telling me I had to do...'

It was then that she set her sights on her career post-discharge in January.

She said: “I saw a job advertised for an Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) at the Cygnet Hospital Maidstone and I instinctively felt that it would be a good fit for me.

“Coming out of hospital and actually having a job to go to was so important. If I came home to nothing, things would have ended worse.

"I was still an inpatient when I had the interview and was over the moon when I heard the news I'd been successful.”

The 23-year-old is now an OTA on Bearsted Ward – a 15 bed male Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.

Emily helps service users regain a sense of control and order in their lives, so they can move to a less restrictive care setting and ultimately return home.

“It's definitely challenging but I am absolutely loving it," she said. "It is great when you witness first-hand the positive changes happening and the difference you can make."

"The guys come in so unwell and within a couple of months they can have a normal conversation again.

"Seeing them get better and able to interact with peers and staff is really rewarding.”

She added: “It's hard looking back at myself year ago. Last August I was in and out of A&E all the time. Something different was wrong with my blood every week.

“Now I am working and I don’t have to worry when I'm next in hospital."

Alongside her new job, Emily will also be an 'Expert by Experience', by working with female services users at Cygnet Hospital in Godden Green, Sevenoaks.

She said: “It's important to give patients hope for the future, and help them realise that things can and do get better.

“When you are first admitted into a service, you feel like your world has turned upside down.

"But however stuck you feel, it’s important to realise that it's only a moment in time – it is not forever.

“Things have turned around for me, and it can for everyone else.

"I want to show that to them and prove that life doesn’t have to be a cycle of mental health getting better and then worse again. There’s so much more to live for.”

For confidential support on eating disorders visit Beat Eating Disorders by clicking here, or call their helpline on 0808 801 0677.