Zia Quizon, Jessy Mendiola battle with body and eating disorders
In an industry where all eyes are on physical appearances, celebrities Zia Quizon and Jessy Mendiola summoned the courage to share on social media how they suffered from different disorders.
On Instagram, Zia was forced to reveal her struggle with body dismorphic disorder (BDD) after some netizens made hurtful comments on the appearance of her boyfriend, Robin Nievera.
The daughter of the late film icon Dolphy and music veteran Zsa Zsa Padilla said BDD is just among other diagnoses she has. According to her, she wants to “keep my medical information private,” but comments on her previous post prompted her “to clarify something to anyone who cares.”
Quoting the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Quizon described BDD as “a body-image disorder characterized by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one’s appearance.”
“And, unsurprisingly, it is one of the major reasons I decided to take a step back from it all and reevaluate who I was becoming and the way I was living my life, the person I was indirectly telling little girls to look like or be like. As much as I convinced myself, I was not interested in playing role model,” she wrote.
Zia revealed she wakes up everyday feeling like “I am the ugliest person on the face of the earth,” but still, she manages to tell herself that “looks are not so important.”
“As much as I concede to the evidence supporting the notion that good-looking people do incur some sort of advantage in life just for being attractive. That’s life, too. But it will never be as important to me as being a good person.”
She went on: “But here is where you come in, Social Media. Here is where I post a picture of my beloved and all some people can comment on is how they dislike his physical appearance. The painful part is not when it comes from strangers, but people in your life. People you have let in, trusted, and are occasionally vulnerable with. ‘Friends.’ ‘Family.’ People who tell you they support you all the way, but cannot seem to control their need to chip you down about your flaws in front of others.”
Zia said reading the hurtful words has affected her one way or another.
“I can do that thing where I pretend it doesn’t bother me and I am above it and better than that. But I am not. Maybe one day. Because for now, it hurts… seriously. Enough to have to talk to my doctors or my therapists and sometimes enough to have to switch around medication.”
Addressing her followers, she added: “I am not telling you to stop coming to Instagram for the primary purpose of judging others, if that is the joy you get from it. Follow your joy, man. Go right ahead. Just please... keep me out of it.”
Meanwhile, Jessy confessed about her battle with bulimia and binge-eating disorder.
Following criticisms on her body weight at the onset of her career, the actress revealed that she would “kill” herself at the gym and “starve” herself as a result of “desperation.”
According to her, bulimia is an eating disorder usually characterized by periods of bingeing—or excessive overeating—followed by some kind of compensatory behavior.
“Losing/maintaining weight has always been a struggle for me. I only started taking my health seriously some time last year. It’s so hard to be in tip-top shape especially when a lot of people try to put you down and tell you how you’re supposed to look. Sometimes you’re too thin, sometimes too fat,” she wrote. “I used to hate my thighs and arms. I would always kill myself at the gym just to achieve unrealistic body goals and starve myself just to reach my weight goal, 100lbs (2nd pic, 110lbs).”
The Star Magic talent also uploaded her past photos.
“I was depressed and heartbroken at that time,” she said, pointing out to the year/s before she was named the country’s “sexiest woman” by a men’s magazine. “…Desperate to lose weight in a short period of time – from 135lbs I went down to 103lbs (4th pic). I starved myself just to lose unwanted weight... to look ‘perfect’ but I was so unhappy. I couldn’t live my life the way I wanted to. I was usually weak and ‘lutang’ because I didn’t have enough nutrients in my body. This kept going until 2016 when I suddenly gained all the weight back and eventually hit my heaviest weight, 140lbs. Because of all the hate online, the struggle with myself kept going until 2017.”
It was only last year when Jessy decided to overhaul her health and fitness regimens to positive effects. Thanks to her coach and trainer, boyfriend Luis Manzano.
“He made me feel better every time I felt so insecure about myself. And he helped me recover from my depression and made me feel loved every single day,” she said.
Jessy noted how finding her inner peace and overcoming her depression help her maintain a healthy lifestyle.
She reiterated the message of loving one’s body: “I guess all I’m trying to say is, it doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to find inner peace and whatever works for you, just stick to that. I am far from perfect but this is who I am and this is how I love myself. I love myself enough to eat what I want to make myself feel good. I love myself enough to move everyday because I want to live my life as best as possible. I know it’s hard sometimes but you just gotta stand back up and try again. To whoever is reading this, accept yourself and work hard to be the best version of yourself. You do YOU.”