Body image and eating disorders are a common struggle across many areas of the modern world, much of which can be attributed to the distorted image of bodies that have been heavily distributed around social media and television or movies for many years and the younger that children become exposed to such ideas.
This has also affected celebs over the years for many reasons. And whether you or a loved one has or currently struggles with this issue, knowing there are more people out there speaking up can really help make you feel less alone or realize the falsehood of striving for a social media idealized appearance. Here are some celebrities who’ve battled with eating disorders in their lifetime.
Jane Fonda
Up until very late in her struggle, Jane Fonda battled with bulimia. As she put it, she fought this battle silently from her puberty aged self until right around 40-50 years of age. And as Jane opened up, she mentioned how difficult it gets to rebound from bulimia or to even recover as you spend longer with this illness. Her choice came because she knew how dangerous and deadly bulimia can be, and even said herself it was a choice of whether she lives or she dies to recover.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has been able to recover from many issues and hardships in her career or overall life in the past few years, which led to her recent Netflix documentary. This opened up a lot of the behind the scenes of the pop star’s life, including how much she would restrict her eating and struggle with eating disorders or its symptoms to cope with bad comments or the paparazzi. She said during this recovery she has felt much better about her body and healthier in many ways.
Demi Lovato
Demi has a lot of hardships we have heard of publicly and a lot that remained behind closed doors in her life of being in the spotlight. She’s struggled with addiction, eating disorders, and her relationship with herself in so many ways. Thankfully Demi is always open to let this be her own and others’ learning points, and she’s talked about how much she struggles with binging and purging as well as how she still does slip up; but that she’s healing and doing her best to recover.
Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul fell victim to the commonness and often shared habits that eating disorders can bring when she first purged in her teen years due to learning about it from her friends. It led to a vicious cycle of using bulimia as a way to control her weight and then excessive exercising too, which Paula admitted she fought with for many years until she was able to find recovery and feel better in her own skin and eating habits.
Eating disorders, much like many struggles with your mind or illnesses, are an issue that harms so many people in life or even takes people’s lives away. But it still manages to be something so taboo that people who have dealt with them often don’t want to or even know how to speak up to help others or educate on the topic. This is why it’s so important to learn more about eating disorders and the effects they can have as well as what causes them and how you can help someone struggling. You never know when you could use that information to help yourself or someone else.
This list of celebrities that have struggled with an eating disorder helps many realize that they’re not alone in this battle, and shows us how necessary it is to learn or speak up.