Amelia Gray Hamlin "Probably Would've Relapsed" If She Hadn't Opened up About Anorexia
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills daughter reveals just how important it was for her to open up about her eating disorder on the show.
In 2018, Amelia Gray Hamlin opened up for the first time about her battle with an eating disorder in a deeply honest social media post. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills daughter had decided to share her story in hopes that it might help others. Now, Amelia is explaining just how pivotal that decision was in regard to her own recovery.
In a recent essay for Glamour, the teen recalled the exact moment she decided to share her struggle with anorexia. "I didn’t tell anyone I planned to 'come out,' so to speak. Instead I took my phone down to the beach to be alone and started drafting an Instagram post — just writing it down helped me a lot. I started crying. Even for me, it was powerful to read the truth. I felt lighter," she wrote.
The teen also revealed that mom Lisa Rinna wasn't too thrilled about her sharing something so personal to the world. "But at the end of the day it was my story. It was something I had gone though. I had the right to decide how and when to talk about it," she shared.
Still, Amelia understood her mother's concern at the time. "I was still at an extremely vulnerable time in my life when I came out about my eating disorder," she wrote. Additionally, she disclosed that "in the wake of my anorexia, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease." (Former RHOBH daughter Gigi Hadid was also diagnosed with this thyroid disease.)
However, the rising model explained how sharing her experience on social media for everyone to see has helped keep her accountable: "If I’m being honest, if I hadn’t come out about my eating disorder when I did, I probably would have relapsed."
Amelia has received tremendous support through her battle from her parents as well. In June, we got a glance at Amelia's hardships with her eating disorder in an episode of RHOBH. The episode inspired Amelia to share more about her personal experience on social media. The Beverly Hills teen also clapped back at those who directed blame at her mom for her eating disorder.
"She really gets the heat of the body shaming related to me," Amelia wrote in the essay. "My mom tried to help me so much, but every time I’d just be like, ‘No, I’m fine, I’m just on a weight-loss journey.’ To have people saying she didn’t do enough hurts my heart so much. If they could only see how much I rejected her help and how much I pushed her away—it hurts me for her."
While on her road to recovery, Amelia shared that she's realized how important confidence is: "When you truly love yourself on the inside, the way you carry yourself is so different. I think that’s when the judgment stops—when they realize that nothing they can say about you or your body will make a difference."
