Portia de Rossi is candid about her battle with bulimia and bullying. Now 42, the actress revealed that she struggled with eating disorders, weight, and bullying since age 12, reported ABC News.
Now starring in Scandal, Portia talked about her bulimia as part of a web series, It Got Better. She revealed that in addition to bulimia and anorexia, she struggled with bullying from her peers.
“I felt tremendous responsibility when I was 12 years old, and I was put up on a catwalk. My modeling agents had told me to go on a diet. So I didn’t eat for 10 days before then. And then I get up on this catwalk, and I’m a little kid and I’m posing and trying to be sexy and strutting around and all the other models are making fun of my bushy eyebrows.”
The bullying, combined with the pressure to maintain her weight loss as a child model, took its toll on the then-preteen, recalled Portia. Thus began the cycle of a binge, followed by a purge that is symptomatic of bulimia.
“Erase the feelings with food, erase the food by vomiting, but you still went left with the shame. It makes me emotional just thinking about that day. Ugh, it’s just horrible.”
For years, Portia starved herself and punished herself with eating disorders, at one point eating only 300 calories a day, the Inquisitr reported.
At one point, she weighed only 38 kilograms yet continued to starve herself because she felt she could never be too thin. She also took laxatives.
She’s not the only celebrity to open up recently about struggling with an eating disorder, reported WonderWall.
Lady Gaga decided to jump-start what she’s calling a “body revolution” by revealing herself in a selfie wearing only lingerie while sharing her anorexia and bulimia struggles.
“Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15,” Gaga posted.
Demi Lovato also talked about her own eating disorders and bullying, choosing the teen publication Seventeen to try to inspire young girls to have positive body image.
“I started compulsively overeating at a very young age. And then I almost stopped eating altogether at the age of 12, after being harassed by kids at school, for being ‘fat,’” she recalled.
Although Demi believes that she will always struggle, she emphasizes that she made the decision to seek help.
“My eating disorder will continue to affect me for the rest of my life, but I’m proud to say that I got the help I needed, and am now the happiest and healthiest I have ever been! Eating disorders often stem from feelings of low self esteem, depression, anxiety, or in my case, being teased and ridiculed for my weight. I also believe that a big contributing factor to these feelings is the pressure that’s out there to meet impossible standards.”
But now, Lovato declares, she takes pride in her recovery and urges those in pain to get help.
“This is why I’m so proud,” she added. “If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, it’s important to speak up and seek professional help.”
[Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images]
