Alison Brie admits she used to think she looked ‘disgusting’ on the red carpet as she reveals body dysmorphia struggle
Alison Brie has bravely opened up about her battle with body dysmorphia in a new interview with Women’s Health.
The Glow star, 37, confessed she used to struggle with attending red carpet events, breaking down in tears beforehand because she thought she looked ‘disgusting’.
The actress admits that with hindsight she can see it wasn’t the case, but fears it’s a problem she will have to deal with her whole life.
Brave: Alison Brie has opened up about her battle with body dysmorphia in a new interview with Women’s Health
Alison told the magazine: ‘I go back to red carpet photos where I thought I looked so horrible, and there are some where I now think, ‘God, I looked beautiful’.’
‘And I’ll remember: An hour before that I was in tears; I thought I was so disgusting.
‘I think it’s something I’ll probably be working through my whole life. And depression too.’
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about perceived flaws in their appearance. These are often unnoticeable to others.
Struggle: The Glow star, 37, confessed she used to struggle with attending red carpet events, breaking down beforehand because she thought she looked ‘disgusting’
Elsewhere during the interview, Alison discussed her battle with crippling depression.
Revealing it ‘comes out of nowhere and really blindsides me’, the actress says exercise such as yoga helps lift the fog a little.
Alison has previously spoken about her experience of depression, which resurfaced just before penning her Netflix film Horse Girl.
‘In my own personal struggles with depression, I know the feeling of being helpless, feeling powerless, feeling alone,’ she said.
Powerful: Alison’s latest film, Netflix drama Horse Girl, was inspired by her experience of depression and her ‘secondary anger’ at her family history of mental illness
‘Right before I wrote this, I went through my deepest bout of depression in my life.
‘[This was in] 2018, right before we started writing it. I was in a really low place and I started talking to a therapist’, she told Vulture.
The film follows a lonely young woman and her battle with psychotic depression, passed down from her grandmother.
Alison’s own grandma suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and she said she felt ‘secondary anger’ at her own genetics.
Coping mechanisms: Alison said her depression ‘comes out of nowhere and really blindsides me’, but exercise such as yoga helps lift the fog a little