What Celebrities Have Suffered From Eating Disorders?

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These brave, inspiring women opened up about how their eating disorders or body image issues were controlling their lives. Eating disorders can affect anybody, from adolescent girls to middle-aged men. Around 30 million people in the United States have an eating disorder, and this number includes many celebrities. Keep reading to learn about celebrities who have spoken up to let others with eating disorders know they’re not alone and to encourage them to seek help.

Troian Bellisario

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The Pretty Little Liars star has long been open about her battle with anorexia as a teenager, first in an interview with Seventeen and then in a PSA in November 2016. “With anorexia, a lot of it is presenting a front of ‘everything is okay’ as you’re slowly killing yourself,” she says in her PSA. When Troian was struggling, she said, “I would withhold food or withhold going out with my friends, based on how well I did that day in school..”, she would turn to her eating disorder as a coping method to handle the pressure of school and wanting to please her family.

Troian decided to face those dark days head-on by writing and starring in her upcoming film, Feed, which tackles the issue of eating disorders. Troian says, “It was not easy; it was like engaging with an addiction. One of the things I really wanted the film to explore was that once you have this relationship, once you have this mental illness or this disease, it never really goes away, but you learn to tame it.”

Lily Collins

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The actress recently shared a very intimate connection with her character in “To the Bone.” Like her character Ellen in the movie, Collins suffered from an eating disorder. While speaking to IMDb Studio about her film, she opened up about her illness for the first time.

In her interview, she said, “This was definitely a more dramatic role for me, I suffered with eating disorders…I wrote a book last year on my experiences a week before I got Marti’s script and it was like the universe putting these things in my sphere to help me face, kind of dead on, a fear that I used to have. And, a way to explain it as someone who’s gone through it and to open up a topic that is considered quite taboo with young people nowadays, male, female, and to really start a conversation.”

Zayn Malik

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The former boy bander spoke out about his struggle with an eating disorder in his new book, Zayn. Zayn said the intensity of his jam-packed schedule at the height of One Direction’s popularity led him to skip multiple meals in a row, sometimes for multiple days.

“Something I’ve never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder,” he wrote. “It wasn’t as though I had any concerns about my weight or anything like that, I’d just go for days — sometimes two or three days straight — without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

Demi Lovato

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The warrior herself. Lovato battled an eating disorder in the spotlight, entering a treatment facility for anorexia and bulimia at 18 years old. She say’s, “It’s a struggle I’ll probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. But I have so much life to live; I don’t want to waste it.” During an interview with American Way, the singer candidly discussed growing up with a mother who suffered from an eating disorder and how an early introduction to the beauty pageant scene affected her self-image.

Kesha

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Well before her legal troubles with her label and allegations of sexual assault against Dr. Luke, Kesha was struggling with another issue – her eating disorder. The star completed a rehab program for her disorders in 2014 and opened up about her darkest times a year later. “There was a lot of not eating – and I started to think being hungry to the point of feeling almost faint was a positive thing,” she said. “The worse it got, the more positive feedback I was getting. Inside I was really unhappy, but outside, people were like, ‘Wow, you look great’…The hardest lesson I learned was having to love myself, but that was also the best lesson.'”

Zoe Kravitz

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Kravitz experienced some bumps on the road to success – and a big one came in the form of her battle with anorexia and bulimia, which started as a teenager and followed her into adulthood. It was her star-studded upbringing, she says, that made her have a difficult time loving herself. “I think it was part of being a woman, and being surrounded by fame,” she said. “I think it was definitely about being around that world, seeing that world. I felt pressured.”

All of these individuals were able to speak up about such a personal and vulnerable issue that affects so many lives. The most important thing to do while fighting this battle is to seek help, and know you’re never alone.

Demi Lovato Continues The Self Love On Instagram & Beyond

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Troian Bellisario

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWiYU2GhH9r/?taken-by=sleepinthegardn

The Pretty Little Liars star has long been open about her battle with anorexia as a teenager, first in an interview with Seventeen and then in a PSA in November 2016. “With anorexia, a lot of it is presenting a front of ‘everything is okay’ as you’re slowly killing yourself,” she says in her PSA. When Troian was struggling she said, “I would withhold food or withhold going out with my friends, based on how well I did that day in school..”, she would turn to her eating disorder as a coping method to handle the pressure of school and wanting to please her family.