“Scandal” actress Kerry Washington is opening up about her psychological well being amid her “poisonous” consuming dysfunction, even admitting she contemplated ending her life.
Kerry Washington Admits She Contemplated Ending Her Life
Kerry Washington sat-down interview with “Good Morning America”‘s Robin Roberts for a “20/20” particular, which can air Thursday, the actress opened up about how she contemplated suicide resulting from her consuming dysfunction, and was “attempting to destroy myself.”
“I may really feel how the abuse was a technique to actually harm myself, as if I didn’t need to be right here,” she instructed Roberts in a preview for the sit-down “20/20” particular which aired on “Good Morning America” Thursday. “It scared me that I couldn’t need to be right here as a result of I used to be in a lot ache.”
When Roberts requested her if she thought-about suicide, Washington responded, “Yeah. Yeah … The habits was tiny little acts of attempting to destroy myself.”
.@kerrywashington opens as much as @RobinRoberts about how she says her relationship with meals and her physique as soon as grew to become a poisonous cycle of self-abuse: “I couldn’t management it.”
“Kerry Washington: Thicker Than Water” airs Sunday 10/9c on @ABC. https://t.co/bnnOTFBDMf pic.twitter.com/z0CxOXBqKd
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 21, 2023
Washington went on to confess she prayed for her to get higher. “The very first thing that put me on my knees — like the primary time I received on my knees and prayed to some energy better than myself to say like, ‘I can’t do that, I want some assist’ — was with my consuming dysfunction,” she instructed Roberts.
“I used to be good at performing ‘good.’ I used to be good at management. I may occasion all night time and drink and smoke and have intercourse and nonetheless present up and have good grades,” the actress continued. “I knew learn how to handle; I used to be so high-functioning and the meals took me out. The body-dysmorphia, the body-hatred, it was past my management and actually led me to feeling like, ‘I need assistance for any individual, or one thing, greater than me as a result of I’m in bother and I don’t know learn how to dwell with this.’”
Washington’s Ongoing Struggles

The “Little Fires In all places” actress beforehand opened up about her consuming dysfunction in an interview with Essence, admitting she felt “disgrace” she felt about it.
“I’d eat something and the whole lot…typically till I handed out,’ she instructed the journal in 2020. “However then, as a result of I had this character that was pushed towards perfectionism, I’d inform folks I used to be on the library, however as a substitute go to the fitness center and train for hours and hours and hours. Preserving my habits a secret was painful and isolating. There was a variety of guilt and a variety of disgrace.”
Washington mentioned she started remedy, which has helped her cope.
“Studying learn how to love myself and my physique is a lifelong course of,” she mentioned. “However I positively don’t battle the way in which I used to. Remedy helped me understand that possibly it’s okay for me to speak my emotions. As an alternative of actually stuffing them down with meals, possibly it’s okay for me to precise myself.”
Kerry Washington Is In A A lot Higher Place

Fortunately, the “Scandal” actress is in a greater place, although she nonetheless has to maintain herself in test and pay attention to her dysfunction.
“I wouldn’t say that I by no means act out with meals, it’s simply very totally different now,” she admitted within the “20/20” preview. “It’s to not the acute. There’s no suicidal ideation, that’s not the place I’m anymore. However I do know, ‘Oh, I’m actually on this chocolate, that is good info for me.’ The underside has gotten lots greater the place just a bit discomfort with it’s sufficient for me to know it is a technique to test myself. But it surely positively appears to be like lots more healthy. It’s lots simpler. It’s lots saner than it was once.”