Lily Allen has revealed that her eating habits have been affected by her ongoing mental health issues.
In the December 16 episode of her BBC podcast do you miss me? with co-host Miquita Oliver, the 39-year-old British pop star opened up about her eating problems over the past three years, which she kept from her therapist.
“I’ve been going through a rough patch the last few months and my diet has become a real problem,” she said on the show.
The singer said that her therapist asked her why she never mentioned her problem after all this time. Allen said she doesn’t necessarily lie in therapy, but unintentionally leaves out aspects of her life during sessions.
“It’s just because it didn’t seem at the top of my list of important things to talk about,” she said.
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Lily Allen in London in October 2024.
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Allen then wondered if her ADHD, which she was diagnosed with in 2023, contributed to her omitting food issues during therapy.
“I don’t connect a lot of things,” she admitted. “My body and my brain are two very different things to me. I know that a lot of people feel that these two things are very connected to each other, but for me it is very different. I spend a lot of time in my head and little time thinking about my body.”
“Right now I’m really not in a good place mentally. I’m not eating, but I’m not hungry — obviously I’m hungry, but my body and my brain are so disconnected from each other that the hunger messages don’t go from my body to my brain,” she explained. “I’m not avoiding food, I’m just not thinking about it … my body is, like, a few steps behind me.”
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Lily Allen in New York in June 2024.
Ammar Rowaid/Patrick McMullan via Getty
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Allen previously spoke about his struggle with an eating disorder back in 2011. The singer told Channel 4 that she suffered from bulimia at a time when people were constantly praising her looks.
“It’s not something I’m proud of,” she said at the time. “But I’ll tell you something, I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and tell me how great I look. I was on the cover of every magazine with them saying, ‘Lily looks fantastic. Look how much weight she lost.’ I thought I looked good.”
“It was great to try on the clothes and walk out of the store feeling like a million bucks. When you’ve been victimized by people saying the exact opposite, you want more than that,” she continued. “But I wasn’t happy, I really wasn’t. I would like to be the thinnest, smallest person in the world. But I know I can’t do it without being unhappy. I like my food.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, visit NationalEatingDisorders.org.
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the text crisis line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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Source: HIS Education