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Alanis Morissette has detailed her battle to recover from eating disorders in a new interview with Women’s Health. The singer — whose debut album, Jagged Little Pill, celebrated its 20-year anniversary this year — tells the magazine that she has dealt with bingeing and purging, starving herself and overeating.
It has a been a difficult road to recovery for Morissette, who compares her struggle to that of an alcoholic or drug addict.
“The big question for me around eating-disorder recovery is, ‘What is sobriety with food?’” Morissette says. “We know with alcohol, you just don’t drink it and don’t go to a bar. With heroin, you just don’t go near it. Whereas with food, you have to eat, so how can one go from, in my case, bingeing and purging, starving, overeating, the scale going up and down — how can I go from that to a ‘sober’ approach?”
Morissette explains that her approach to overcoming her eating disorders included developing a new mind-set about food and building boundaries.
“I’ve been so disassociated for most of my life, and it’s shown up in various forms like eating disorders and not having boundaries around having sex as a young person, and just not being aware of boundaries and having a lot of mine be violated and not considered. For me, the idea of building boundaries has become a huge part of my spiritual practice. With the mindfulness somatic practices, it’s really helped me stay in my body,” she says.
“I was raised on macaroni and cheese,” Morissette adds. “But I’ve noticed allergies that have gone away when I step away from dairy. I’ve noticed when I get the high-nutrient greens, I sleep better. There’s less moodiness. Food is entirely medicine to me. That doesn’t mean I’m just eating seeds and raspberries, although that’s fun, too, but it’s an integrative approach.”
This article first appeared on Billboard.com.
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