Anorexic teen who only has gum and sparkling water for meals now gets healed

An 18-year-old anorexia teen, from Gothenburg, Sweden, had suffered from the illness since she was 11. She was living on a diet with only sparkling water and chewing gum, which she made herself feel like "dead".

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Amanda Kristiansen, who is a receptionist, hated the way she looked and believed that losing weight would her noticeable and have more friends. 

She cut out all sweets and carbohydrates from her meals and turned out having a serious weight plummeting to 5 stone (70 pounds). 

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However, dieting didn't teach her to love herself back or win friends, but, instead, she struggled with the eating disorder making her feel even more lonely eventually. 

She only weighed 5 stone and 2 lbs (72 pounds) at her lowerest.

"At that time, I was incredibly insecure, hated how I looked and how I was, I was the silent girl and barely had any friends. I had always been normal weight, but I always had a very wrong body image," said Amanda.

She said after summer 2010, she was very extremely depressed and lonely, so she got the idea that she should start to lose weight to change herself.

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Instagram photo

Instagram photo

She trained several times a week to every day. She banned herself from candy and carbs. 

"I lived on carbonated water and chewing gum to keep away the hunger feelings. I didn't allow myself to sit at all, just when I sat in a car or when I was asleep at night, though I was not allowed to sleep for more than seven to eight hours a night," the teenager recalled. "I hid a lot of food in my slippers, bra and pockets and I was an expert at lying."

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Instagram photo

Amanda said she has no control of her own thoughts or actions that every day went by she was losing more and more control while the disease got more and more control over her. She felt like she was dead and she wanted to. 

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She later tried to recover for her family but as time went by she started to fight for herself and the treatment started to work only until she wanted to be free from the illness. 

"I found my love for strength training and that was one motivation to start eating. I also started to hang out with friends again and found new friends. I wanted to be able to do everything that they did," said Amada. "I started to see the positive things in life and that did that I fought harder."

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Instagram photo

The teenager now shares her experience to encourage the others. 

"I am happy about how my body looks, I wouldn't say I love it 100 percent but I don't think anybody in this world does," she said."But I feel comfortable in myself most of the time and I can live my life how I want."

Her family and friends are proud of her and are relieved. She said her mum had been her angel and had saved her life. 

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Instagram photo

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden should increase its annual military budget by nearly 54 billion kronor ($5 billion) by 2030 to strengthen its air defenses and beef up the number of conscripts, a Swedish parliamentary committee recommended Friday.

The Scandinavian country joined the NATO alliance in March, moving away from a decades-long policy of neutrality in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The report by the Defense Committee, which is made up of representatives of the eight political parties sitting in the Swedish parliament, said that NATO membership and the serious security situation require higher ambitions.

“An armed attack against Sweden or our allies cannot be ruled out,” the commission said in its report entitled “Strong defense capability, Sweden as an ally.”

Sweden’s air defense must also be expanded to meet threats from unmanned flying craft, more hunting and cruise missiles must be purchased and the navy should receive more personnel, according to the nearly 300-page report. It also suggested that the number of conscripts should gradually be increased to 12,000 in 2032. Presently there are about 8,000 conscripts in Sweden.

The recommendation follows similar moves in its two Scandinavian neighbors, both of them longstanding NATO members. Earlier this month, Norway said it would gradually increase the number of conscripted soldiers from 9,000 at present to 13,500 by 2036. Meanwhile, Denmark last month said it wants to increase the number of young people doing military service by extending conscription to women and increasing the time of service from four months to 11 months.

Swedish news agency TT quoted Defense Minister Pål Jonson saying the defense committee’s proposal was “necessary in light of the serious security policy situation in the world.”

Sweden’s current military budget for 2024 is about 119 billion kronor ($11 billion).

The center-right, three-party coalition of Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is likely to follow most of the commission's recommendations in the report, which was presented Friday.

Swedish soldiers during the military exercise Aurora 23 at Berga naval base outside Stockholm, Friday, April 28, 2023. A Swedish parliament committee on Friday, April 26, 2024, said Sweden which recently joined NATO, should increase its military budget by nearly 54 billion kronor ($5 billion) until 2030 to strengthen the Scandinavian country's air defense and increase the number of conscripts, among others. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP, File)