The 37-year-old musician Alanis Morissette suffered from the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia when she was a teenager and has admitted her struggles with food came from an unhealthy desire to bury her feelings.
Writing in her blog for iVillage.com, she said, “There are often traumas and abuses/neglect that are begging to be healed. Fat can be a way to protect ourselves and survive, a way to control something in a world where everything feels out of control, and a way to stave off profound fear of feeling our feelings. I often find anxiety, fear, boredom, disappointment, loneliness, excitement and grief to be the top feelings food can attempt to prevent.”
Although she has overcome her disorder, Alanis, who has an 11-month-old son Ever Imre with her husband Mario ‘Souleye’ Treadway, still has a “fraught relationship with food and fat”.