“I was in my own little world. I was so weak that I couldn’t walk, I had to get my dad to carry me up the stairs and I was so malnourished that I lost my hearing and my eyesight.”

This is the stark admission from Rosie Barr, who has spent the last year battling anorexia so severe that she nearly died.

The 22-year-old, of Rodney Road, Wanstead, bravely told her story as part of a BBC2 Louis Theroux documentary 'Talking to Anroexia' to help shine a light on the reality of the disease.

Rosie weighed an unhealthy 5st4lb when she was at her worst

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Rosie speaks with remarkable candour as the film crew follows her around the Phoenix Ward at St Ann’s Hospital in Tottenham, where she spent three months recovering.

It all started last October when her confidence hit rock bottom after a break up. Desperate to change the way she looks, Rosie – who was never overweight to begin with – joined a gym.

“It became obsessive,” she told the Guardian.

Soon, she was so hooked on the idea of losing weight that she started skipping meals.

In December, her family noticed she had shed an unhealthy amount of weight, but their concern simply fuelled her desire to get thinner.

But at the end of December she was admitted to hospital after her irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) flared up and the consultant noticed she was probably anorexic.

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He referred her to the hospital, which is at the forefront of the documentary, and ultimately, saved her life.

It was during an outpatient appointment in March that Rosie – a former pupil at Wanstead High School - realised she couldn’t fight it any longer.

By this point, she was eating just 300 calories a day and weighed a painful 5stone4lbs. Her health deteriorated so severely that she lost her hearing and her eyesight and could only crawl up the stairs.

She told the Guardian: “I was in an appointment talking about my dietary plans and I turned to the dietician and I said – please. I need your help. I broke down to my mum, we started crying.

Rosie wanted a confidence boost so joined a gym and stopped eating

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“I said – it’s time for me to go in. The ward manager came down with a wheelchair because I was too weak to walk. I felt a sense of relief but looking back at the actual date, it was all a blur.

“But that was a huge step and something I found so helpful. I was struggling and knew I couldn’t do it on my own.”

Rosie as a child, when she was a healthy weight

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During the documentary, with his usual, bolshy attitude, Louis asks Rosie: “Did you get a thrill out of not eating?”

“At the time, yes,” she admits. “But looking back at the time, no.”

During her five month stay at the ward, she would return home to Wanstead over weekends to see her family.

There, Theroux flips through a photo album of Rosey as a young child – looking healthy – and a photo of her before a night out just before she got sick.

Louis speaking to Rosie's dad, Paul

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“There was nothing in the background – no inkling?” He asks her.

“No, if I’d known I’d be here, I’d have laughed at you,” she says, before adding: “I kind of wanted to die. I gave up.”

Her dad, Paul, tells Theroux: “We’re fine, we’re coping. We are taking things day by day but we couldn’t have coped any longer. You couldn’t sleep at night, thinking what do we do? Where do we take her?

“It was terrible times and like a living hell.”

Rosie with her mum, Heather

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Mum Heather added: “I thought – please stop going to the gym. Once you stop going to the gym this might have all stopped.

“I thought it was just a phase but I was trying to keep her happy. I was frightened she might say that if you don’t do this for me, I’ll harm myself.”

Rosie is taking each day as it comes - but looks a lot healthier already

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“I was scared of me, there was a lot of anger,” she later tells him.

Today, she is taking every day as it comes.

Soon, she hopes to get back into work as a receptionist and take a cookery course – but in the meantime, she needs to stay sedentary, so she doesn’t burn any calories.

“Everyone has their ups-and-downs but I’m doing so much better,” she told the Guardian.

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“I’d encourage anyone going through what I went through to get the help and don’t do it alone.

“Hiding and shutting myself and not opening up didn’t help in the slightest.”

Rosie’s story is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.