Camila Mendes is opening up about how she has struggled with an eating disorder.
During and appearance on the Going Mental podcast, the 28-year-old actress revealed that although her struggles started back when she was younger, it escalated into a bigger battle for her as she filmed the first season of Riverdale. She stars as Veronica Lodge in the hit CW show.
Camila shared that as she watched the episodes back, she’d take notice certain things about her physique that just added to her issues with body image. She said:
“I would watch every episode and be like, ‘Oh my God, my stomach there…’ I was so insecure and it really fueled my eating disorder.
I had one at various points in my life. A little bit in high school, towards the end of senior year, and then a little bit in college, and then it came back [during] Season 1 of Riverdale.”
She continued, explaining:
“When you’re in your early 20s, your body is fluctuating, my body hadn’t settled into itself yet. I was looking at myself, taking myself apart, my stomach, you know, my arms, my chin, anything — I would obsess over [it]. It got in the way of my acting, because when I was acting on camera … it really f****s with your process.”
Camila then went on to reveal that she began to see a therapist to help her through her struggles, and a nutritionist who “helped me overcome my fear of bread.” She added:
“I was really afraid of eating carbs. And what would happen is I would avoid it for a long period of time and then I would binge and eat a bunch and then purge.
So it was this terrible cycle, and she helped me overcome that by reintroducing bread into my life to be like, ‘See, it’s not going to kill you.’ Now, it’s something that rarely comes up in therapy.”
She admitted that she had this mindset of fear brought about by the fact that as she lost weight, others would tell her, “You look so good.” Camila revealed:
“When I don’t hear that, I think I look terrible – when nobody’s commenting on how thin I look.”
