Jameela Jamil suffered with "severe" post traumatic stress disorder.
The ‘Good Place’ star was dealt a lot of "trauma" when she was younger – including becoming anorexic in her teens, being bed bound for a year after a car accident when she was 17, being raped and having a nervous breakdown in her early 20s – and she credits eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) for helping her on the road to recovery.
She said: "For a long time I had severe PTSD. EMDR pretty much used a magic trick. It removed my trauma. I can remember horrific things and feel like they happened to other people. I couldn’t have kept myself together without it.
"I don’t use my trauma unless I feel it’s necessary to bring context to my opinion. I left school at 16, so I don’t have credentials, just the life I managed to survive."
As a result of what she went through, Jameela has become an activist for women’s rights and also wants to promote body positivity.
Speaking to The Sunday Times magazine, she added: "Being an opinionated, intimidating woman doesn’t have to end your career and I’m proud of that. I hope what I’m doing inspires other people to tell the truth."
Jameela previously revealed she was told she was "too old, fat and ethnic" for Hollywood and she is fed up of people who "project their fears" on her.
Speaking during the Create & Cultivate Desert Pop Up earlier this year, she said: "I was told I was too old, too fat, and too ethnic for Hollywood, but I’m here today. Don’t listen to people who project their fears on you. If you’re going to be an activist or feminist, you have to be willing to take an L and know that we don’t know everything. We have to be willing to shut up, listen, and learn, and not be too proud about it."
Jameela Jamil’s severe PTSD
