- Sana Saeed revealed her six-year struggle with bulimia before knowing the disorder's name
- She recovered after four years using a recovery book that provided proper understanding
- Saeed highlighted societal pressure to lose weight beyond the entertainment industry
Actress Sana Saeed has shed light on her journey dealing with bulimia, an eating disorder. The Kuch Kuch Hota Hai star spoke at length about how shame, societal beauty standards, and the pressure to lose weight affected her relationship with food.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Sana said she had never heard the words bulimia or eating disorder while growing up. “What it looked like to me was a bad habit I'd developed, something I had to figure out alone. I carried so much shame around it, thinking I was the only one dealing with this," she said.
"For six years I had no name for what I was going through. I was desperate to get better and find a healthy way to eat, and eventually I came across a book on recovery that gave me the language for what I was actually dealing with. That's when the real healing began, and it took four years to recover completely," she added.
Saeed admitted that early awareness of her condition would have allowed her to start her healing process sooner. “Now that I'm healed, it matters to me deeply that if my story helps even one person feel less alone in theirs, that's worth more than the discomfort of being vulnerable in public,” she mentioned.
The actress claimed that the pressure to lose weight extends far beyond the entertainment industry. Recalling her college days, she said that many of her friends were dieting, trying to shed weight and discussing changes in their bodies.
"That was the era of size zero when skinny was in, when there were ten different diets available on Google, and everyone I knew was running on a treadmill. Becoming aware of your changing body as a young woman is completely natural, but health, nutrition, and building strength for the long run weren't topics I grew up around.
“My world complimented weight loss and nothing else, not how you felt, not whether you'd gone hungry all day to look a certain way. I think the industry just amplifies something a lot of us already carry. Being on camera, being commented on, having your appearance be part of the job description," she explained.
Saeed, who also acted in Student Of The Year, said the constant focus on appearance can make an otherwise healthy relationship with one's body increasingly complicated. “I don't look back at any one moment or person with blame. I look back at a young woman who didn't yet have the tools to separate how she looked from who she was in an environment that made that separation harder than it needed to be. It was the slow realisation that I was spending all my energy managing something instead of living my life,” she concluded.
Saeed has now relocated to Los Angeles to expand her career as a producer and content creator.
Also Read: "Never Heard About It Growing Up": Kuch Kuch Hota Hai's Little Anjali, Sana Saeed, Drops A Shocking Confession