text: By the time she turned five, Amber Rachdi, now 24, from Troutdale in Oregon, weighed 11st - the same as the average adult woman. 19  years later and Ms Rachdi hit rock bottom: virtually housebound and in constant pain, she was ashamed of her enormous 46st (657lb) frame. But after doctors warned that she would be dead by the age of 30, the 24-year-old plucked up the courage to make a change and has since lost 20st in a year. Scroll down for video . Obese: At her heaviest, Amber tipped the scales at an unhealthy 46st (657lbs) 'Sometimes I think to myself I'm never going to change,' she admitted in the run-up to life-saving bariatric surgery. 'Everything hurts. I am so limited in what I can do and where I can go. 'I feel trapped. I'm miserable. I don't like being this person. I don't like being this size. Sometimes I feel so hopeless, I feel that it's not worth it. That maybe it would be better if I'd never been born.' Despite her hefty frame, Ms Rachdi says she has always eaten healthily - and puts the excess pounds to eating more healthy food than she should. She also says she used food to control feelings of anxiety and to deal with her fear of failure but says all the comfort eating just made things worse in the end. 'My relationship with food is unhealthy,' she explains. 'I spend a lot of the day stressing about what I'm going to eat and when I'm going to get it. Comfort eating: Ms Rachdi, pictured with parents Patty and Abe, said she used food to deal with anxiety . Deadly: Ms Rachdi had become so heavy, she was warned that she risked dying by the age of 30 . 'There's anticipation before I eat but it's not enjoyable. It's a feeling of desperation and sadness. Food is a comfort and it's helping me avoid reality. I have a lot of anxiety and I don't like it. 'I'm at peace while I eat. I don't have to think about how I have let everyone around me down. It's a distraction.' As a result of her overeating, her parents were left in a state of panic, with mother Patty admitting that she was sure her daughter would die. 'She always felt she didn't live up to our expectations,' she says. 'She just became a typical underachiever. 'We were told that if she doesn't lose weight, she will die before she's 30.' 'I see a lot of pity in my mum's face when she looks at me and I can't handle that,' said Ms Rachdi, ahead of her surgery. Support: Ms Rachdi has been supported throughout by her boyfriend Rowdy who also moved to Houston . Getting there: Ms Rachdi had to lose 17lb before being allowed to have weight loss surgery . Slimmer: Ms Rachdi has now shed 20st and tips the scales at 26st - half her former body weight . 'Sometimes my dad would make snide comments about my size and that would hurt me. I wish I could be self-sufficient and successful and show the world I'm made of so much more but as long as I'm big, as long as I'm obese, I will never be able to be that person.' The turning point came when the Rachdi family relocated to Houston in Texas to be closer to bariatric specialist, Dr Younan Nowzaradan. Last autumn, Ms Rachdi finally went under the knife for life-saving gastric surgery and has since lost a staggering 20st. But with another 9st to go, there is still a long way to go before Ms Rachdi becomes the 'successful, independent woman' she wants to be. Even so, things are finally looking up. 'I'm now able to shop for myself,' beams the 24-year-old who has also learned to drive. 'I have hope. Now the world is open to me. I'm no longer Amber of one room, one house. I'm no longer using food to cope with my anxiety.'
target: Amber Rachdi, 24, weighed an unhealthy 46st at her heaviest .
  Student, from Oregon, was confined to her home and was always in pain .
  Has turned her life around after having bariatric surgery .
  Ms Rachdi has shed an impressive 20st and weighs 26st (377lb)
  Amber Rachdi appears on My 600lb Life, Thursday at  9pm on TLC .