Country Singer Lindsay Ell Reveals Recent Eating Disorder Diagnosis

Lindsay Ell is on a journey of recovery after recently being diagnosed with an eating disorder. The country singer, 33, shared her diagnosis on Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, telling The Bachelorette she hit a “whole new kind of rock bottom” the week prior when she “basically discovered” that she had an eating disorder.

“Food became this thing that was like a drug, how I was abusing it,” she explained. “It was just this relationship that was no longer a healthy thing.” Ell said she’s gotten to the point of admitting to herself that she has a problem. “And not in a way of like ‘Oh I am this,’ though it’s something to blame. More in the way of ‘Oh wow, I’ve been letting this thing have so much power and so much energy from my life,’” she shared. The “How Do You Love” artist shared that her eating disorder has been a “symptom” of what’s been going on with her mental health, which caused her to “go get help” while “showing myself grace and trying to love myself through it.” 

Ell took to Instagram Monday to share more about her mental health journey, explaining, “I got diagnosed with an eating disorder a few weeks ago, and have come to terms that it’s something I have been living in denial of for the better part of 20 years.” The Canada-born artist continued, “I always told myself that an eating disorder would look like ‘that kind of body’ and that there’s no way I could have one because I didn’t look like that. I told myself that the way I was living was fine, because it was just part of my career.”

However, things “got to the point where it felt like it was taking over my life, and I no longer had control over what I ate or didn’t eat in the shadows. I got really good at pretending that everything was OK out in public, but at home I was shriveling up.” While there’s definitely “deeper work” that’s needed, Ell said she is “figuring it out day by day” and plans to share her recovery moving forward.

“I’m telling you all this because I know that it is the stories I hear that inspire me to be a better person,” she concluded. “I hope in sharing this and my journey as I go along it, will inspire you to be honest with yourself – with what you’re feeling and what you’re going through.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, please call the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.