Frankie Bridge bravely opened up to her followers in a video posted to social media after she attended a therapy session. The Loose Women star was speaking out on the resurfacing trend of "heroin chic" after suffering with an eating disorder.
It comes after a viral tweet declared that 'heroin chic' bodies were making a comeback, referring to a shock trend that dominated the catwalks in the nineties leading to a number of high-profile celebrities to speak out and slam the claim. Taking to Instagram, Frankie shared how she had been speaking to a therapist specifically around eating disorders and body image since last year.
"I couldn't really handle it because I find talking about what I eat and my weight a really personal subject which is so weird because I have had therapy for years talking about anxiety and depression," Frankie shared. "But for some reason talking about food and weight seemed so much harder for me."
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She went on to say: "It's almost been a dirty little secret for so many years and my way of finding a form of control. I don't think I was ready to give that up yet... [so] every time [a] therapy session [was] coming up, I would think of ways to try and cancel it, which is ridiculous."
She went on to tell her 1.5 million followers: "There's such a sense of shame around food - especially talking about it. It didn't sit right with me." According to the Express, the former Saturdays star admitted that she felt "shame" and "embarrassment" over her therapist's request that she keep a food diary documenting what she eats.
"[The] last time she asked me to do a food diary was when I kind of bowed out and never booked another session in," she said. "I've had therapy for years about depression, anxiety, talking about really personal things, but for some reason, talking about food and weight seems so much harder for me," she continued.
Frankie, 33, went on to honestly share how she was "constantly" plotting ways to restrict her intake, and had categorised food into good and bad groups.
"Is there any wonder heroin chic is back? Everyone's gotta be skinny again," she said, referring to the 1990s fashion trend. "When I was younger, if someone asked me if I was unwell because I was so skinny, it felt like I'd won - and if I go to bed and I feel hungry, I feel proud of myself.
"It's just from that 90s mentality that is inbred into me and it's going to be so hard to kind of get that out of me and retrain." But Frankie was more positive as she shared how she had finally attempted to start keeping a food diary. "When I see it written down, I'm like, of course I'm eating like an absolute idiot!" the mum-of-two said.
"I never realised I have at least five to six hours between eating [each meal] and then I'm starving, so I reach for the easiest thing which will be something that's not nutritious, or carbs that I've been told for so many years since the Atkins diet that I'm not supposed to eat because it's the devil... lots of things for me to relearn and retrain my brain."
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