may be ending soon (* ugly hollers *), but actress, Troian Bellisario( who plays Spencer Hastings ), already has a new project in the works that may be her most impactful yet.
Bellisario shot thefilmwhich she aimed and wrote based on her its own experience with the anorexia, reports People publication. The movies plot are as follows twins( played by Bellisario and Tom Felton, of notoriety) who are familiar with a misfortune in their last year of high school that pushes them apart.
Bellisario discussed the film and mental illness in detail withmagazine.
She shared,
One of the things I genuinely craved the film to explore was that once you have this relationship, once you have this mental illness or this disease, it never genuinely goes away.
Your synapses are wired in a way that you will always feel this compulsion, but as you grow older and create a healthier life and go across lots of therapy, you tend to feel more empowered when it is necessary to stimulating these choices.
The actress has long been open about her battle with anorexia, and first talked about it in an interview with magazine.
She described her experience, telling,
I started self-harming when I was a junior. I would withhold food or withhold going out with my friends, based on how well I did that day in school.
I would create this bizarre system of checks and balances to create ordering in my world.
Bellisariolaterfilmed an awareness PSAduring the2 016 Hillary Clinton campaign.
The filmis necessary for the culture simply because we dont talking here eating disordersas often as we should.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association( NEDA ), 20 million women and 10 million men experience an eating disorder in their lifetimes. Half a million teens are also affected by them.
While “theres been” movies about eating disorders in the past, the topic has not been part of national conversationin this way.
Growing up, I specifically remember discovering everything there was to know about eating disorders from Lifetime movies, like( 1994 ), and( 1996 ).
Since the 90 s, yes, “theres been” other cinemas that grapple with the subject, like the 2013 film, , starring Elle Fanning. Still, a check on Google search trends indicates public interest in looking up terms like eating disorders, anorexia, and bulimia has decreased since 2004.
There is still little understandingabout eating disorders.
Other conditions are classified as eating disorder not otherwise specified or EDNOS. An instance isPica, the behavior ofconstantly feeing things not meant for consumption, like plastic or soil. Ruminationis another, which happens when people bring back up food they already digested to eat again.
Chewing and spitting( c/ s) is another condition not classified as an eating disorder, but involves person or persons munching foodand spitting it out instead of swallowing it.
Its important to talk about and understand these ailments, so we can identify them easier, and erase the stigma associated with them.
Wedont thoroughly understandthepeople who suffer from these disorders.
Merriam-Webster definesanorexia as,
A serious physical and psychological illness in which an abnormal fear of being fat leads to very poor feeing habits and dangerous weight loss.
However, this definition is incomplete, according toexperts and survivors.
Psychology Today debunked the myth about eating disorders being all about wanting to be thin, in anarticle that provides information about how the desire forcontrol is the fueling factor.
Troian Bellisario likewise shared in publication that many people misunderstood this about her mental illness.
She mentioned,
I saw there were so many people who thought that it was about losing weight or being skinny, and I couldnt quite get them to understand that it was about control on a very, very literal level.
A film like, created by one of the biggesttelevision starrings in the digital age, whois a survivor, will hopefully push eating disorders back into trending conversation and empower more people to form a full understanding.
