Troian Bellisario Opens Up About Struggles After Battling Anorexia

Troian Bellisario has had a whirlwind of a year!

The Pretty Little Liars star wrapped the final season of the Freeform series and just married her longtime love, Suits actor Patrick J. Adams.

Just before her nuptials, Troian opened up about her struggle with anorexia with The Cut, and what she says, is very inspiring.

“I really had never intended on speaking out publicly about my experience with anorexia nervosa and the ongoing struggle with it that people with the mental illness have. But I was doing an interview with Seventeen a few years ago, and they asked me what my life was like when I was 17, and I thought very clearly to myself, ‘Well, I can either lie about this or I could tell people the truth,’” she says.

Thankfully, she did the latter.

“That was very important because the fans of my show are young women, so I knew that there would be a number of them who would definitely be dealing with disordered eating, whether in fact it was a mental illness or eating disorder. So I thought it was important that I speak out about my recovery process and seeking treatment,” she adds.

Troian continued, “I have such a complicated history with food, the biggest day-to-day struggle is just making sure I maintain a healthy diet.”

“Even if you are several years into your recovery, whereas some people may just forget to eat or be too busy running around to eat, that is a very significant stress on my mental state, and it links back to some really unhealthy habits.”

“Making sure that I eat in a healthy way and on a pretty regular schedule – and making meals a social activity and not just shoving a protein bar in my face in the dark just to make sure I have fuel – is my biggest wellness struggle,” she says.