Brittany Snow looks back at the long road to recovery after struggling with an eating disorder.
Hunting Wives After landing her breakout role on the soap opera, the star began struggling with anorexia, exercising bulimia, depression and self-harm. Guiding Light 12 years old. He entered a residential rehab center at 19 but left early to shoot movies John Tucker Must Die. Snow took a life-saving break from Hollywood at the age of 23, completing a year of intensive outpatient therapy.
Snow has spoken extensively about her struggle with an eating disorder and her mental health. Dax Shepard‘s “Armchair Expert” podcast, weeks after celebrating 17 years of recovery.
“Seventeen years ago, I didn’t know if I could achieve this. I couldn’t see a future, and I certainly couldn’t imagine a future where I could learn to be kind to myself,” she shared on Instagram in September 2026.
Keep scrolling to see Snow’s biggest revelations from the “Armchair Expert” episode:
How Brittany Snow’s Eating Disorder Battle Began
Snow’s struggles began when she played the role of Susan “Daisy” Lema. Guiding Light 12 years old.
“Things get a little dark… I decided to imitate the women on the set, they were all on a diet and they were all looking at their bodies and talking about their bodies,” she recalled. “My body was changing and I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a plus-sized teenager,’ so I go on a diet and then it starts to become kind of a best friend and it’s like an addiction where I’m really hyper-focused on that being the only thing I care about.”
She continued, “So it was just a job and… I was counting every calorie, working out for two hours after rehearsals before we shot the soap opera acting day, and so it was constantly repetitive and it made me feel safe because every time I got on the scale there was a new number and even though it dropped, I did a good job.”
Brittany Snow Talks About Working With an Eating Disorder
Snow quietly struggled with an eating disorder while playing Meg Pryor on the NBC drama American Dreams From 2002 to 2005.
“I knew the show was so good and I was really confident in it. But I was so sick with my eating disorder at that point that I was really just trying to get by,” she shared.
Brittany Snow’s father intervened
Snow revealed he was her father Johnwho convinced him to go to therapy.
“Actually my father [intervened]and it was my first time going to therapy. I started therapy when I was 16. “I started going to programs and learned what an eating disorder was,” she recalled.
Brittany Snow opened up about how her ex-husband Tyler Stanaland “burned down” their relationship following his actions on season 1 of Selling the OC. Snow, 38, sat down with “Call Her Daddy” host Alexandra Cooper for an in-depth conversation about her post-divorce life that aired on Wednesday, March 27. “What happened to me – and I won’t talk about it […]
Snow added that a magazine article revealed the seriousness of what he experienced.
“I read an article in a magazine about this woman with an eating disorder and I thought, ‘The way she counts her meals and the way she talks about her body, that’s exactly what I do.’ And I said, ‘Eating disorder? “I don’t even know what that means,” he continued. “So I tore up the magazine. “I carried it in my back pocket for a while because it felt like someone had an answer to it and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”
Brittany Snow Goes to Rehab Twice and Moves Away from Hollywood
Snow said he found the most success in his recovery when he enrolled in an outpatient treatment program.
“What worked best for me was an outpatient situation where I quit acting for a year and I was in an outpatient program with this guy. Ray Santa MariaMy favorite person at One on One Treatment. Shout out to Ray. “He saved my life,” he recalled.
The Pitch Perfect star continued, “And it was about doing normal human things: going to a restaurant, eating with your friends, going to the movies, and not knowing whether or not you should get popcorn. You know, things where you have to be really responsible and not lie, like, you know, we like to lie, we like to be sneaky about things and just really show up for ourselves and be confident. And that’s what I learned in outpatient treatment… For a year, it was just about what I was doing every day, like I was just immersed in it.” [it]and I think that’s what really helped me because I learned to trust myself every day.
Kerry Washington realized she was in the middle of a “real mental health crisis” before seeking treatment for an eating disorder. “It wasn’t the food itself or the behavior of the food that made me get help for my eating disorder,” Washington, 49, said during a television appearance on Wednesday, March 18. […]
The Day Brittany Snow Began to Heal
Snow realized he needed to improve while directing his 2023 movie Parachute.
“I directed a movie called Parachute a few years ago, and that was actually the beginning of understanding how I could get better, and that was the last day I got better,” he said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or call the helpline at (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” toll-free to 741741 for 24/7 support.