Model Ayyan Ali took to Twitter to share her weight loss journey and mental health struggles after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy - a disease that causes the heart to lose its ability to pump blood well - and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“This weight struggle is my story of how I went from 60kg to 100kg & back to 58kg,” she wrote on Twitter and Instagram.

Ayyan said her mental health started declining after her court case in 2015. “For the next two years, depression, stress and anxiety increased with each passing day.’’

The model shot to fame in 2015 after a money laundering case. She was arrested on charges of money laundering after being caught with over half a million dollars by customs officials at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

The case took a political turn when the airport entry pass of the personal assistant (PA) to a former president was cancelled for allegedly trying to facilitate Ayyan to smuggle half million dollars.

“Money laundering, murder, terrorism. Every week I had to deal with a new fake case,” she tweeted.

Remnants of the physical and mental torture of her days in prison and the character assassination on national TV forced her to stay alone all the time, she said. It led to decreased mobility and stress eating. The model said that she started experiencing panic attacks which made the stress eating worse.

Ayyan revealed that she had suffered a heart attack in Dubai. It took place a few months after she successfully challenged the inclusion of her name on the country’s no-fly list and relocating to Dubai, she said.

She said that upon her release from the hospital, the doctor told her to lose weight otherwise the next attack could be fatal.

After the health scare, she opted for an extensive exercise regime that is usually taken up by male athletes.

“Everyone told me that being a woman, I won’t be able to lift that much weight,” she said. She went to lose 40 kgs in the next six months.

She concluded by saying that trolling and mocking people isn’t only derimental for people’s mental health but it is also ‘unethical, inhumane and un-Islamic’. She said it qualified as hate speech.

“If you see such behavior on social media, report the offender so that it does not hurt others.”