Shailene Woodley Opens up About Health Condition That Caused Hearing Loss

Shailene Woodley is opening up about the decade-long health journey that consumed her 20s. The Divergent actress, 32, appeared on the Sept. 24, episode of the SHE MD podcast, where she expanded on her previous comments about being “very sick” while filming the dystopian sci-fi series.

Woodley noted that she didn’t feel it necessary to share her exact diagnosis due to its personal nature, but said she would share more of her symptoms and healing journey publicly. “It got to the point where I was losing my hearing. I couldn’t walk for longer than five minutes at a time without having to lay down for hours and hours and hours and sleep,” she revealed. “Everything I ate hurt my stomach. It was this conflation of issues and diagnoses and different doctors telling me different things.”

For about a decade, the Big Little Lies star said she struggled with her health, noting that her stomach issues particularly led to her being afraid of eating, which then contributed to “the mental f-kery that can happen with that of body dysmorphia and confusion about identity and feeling safe in my own capsule, in my own skin, and what that meant and what that should be.”

Woodley continued, “It was a journey that, ultimately, physically resolved itself. And I am very healthy. I’m so happy to be able to say that. And, also, it forced me to really take a deep look and become introspective.” Looking back now, The Fault in Our Stars actress shared that she needed to heal physically and emotionally from “real traumas and PTSD” she had from her past, which she said contributed to her health issues. 

The star also shared the struggle she had to find a consistent diagnosis on her health journey. “Every person I went to was giving me mixed information, and it set me on my own journey of, ‘OK … I don’t feel safe with any of these people that are guiding me because I feel like they actually are figuring it out along the way as well,” she said. “And so, I might as well take this into my own hands and devote myself to educating myself about so many subjects and approaching it from an internal holistic place.’”

Woodley revealed that she now is not on medication and is healthy with everything “pumping in the way that it should.” She added, “I believe, ultimately, the thing that led me there, alongside, again, the physical aspects, was acknowledging that I was in a constant state of fight or flight. My nervous system was super sympathetic and just very much operating from a place of fear and a place of where’s the lion in the room?”