Kesha Talks Eating Disorder: I Was Really Hurting My Body

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Kesha blames the music industry in part for her body-image issues that put her in rehab.

Back in January, reports surfaced that Kesha had gone into rehab for an eating disorder. Now, the pop star is opening about her very real fight with body-image issues, many of which she blames on being in entertainment.

The 27-year-old singer's ELLE UK magazine essay begins by her talking about how she came to find herself in a treatment facility. "Sure, I've written songs about partying, but my dirty little secret is that I'm actually incredibly responsible. ...I take my music and career very seriously, and certainly didn't land in this situation from partying. But I was cut off from the outside world and I imagined people making up stories at a time when what I really needed was support."


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"The music industry has set unrealistic expectations for what a body is supposed to look like, and I started becoming overly critical of my own body because of that," Kesha writes, admitting that she was a victim of bullying and therefore threw herself into her art. "I felt like people were always lurking, trying to take pictures of me with the intention of putting them up online or printing them in magazines and making me look terrible."

Getting even more honest with her fans, the Tik Tok singer adds, "I felt like a liar, telling people to love themselves as they are, while I was being hateful to myself and really hurting my body. I wanted to control things that weren't in my power, but I was controlling the wrong things. I convinced myself that being sick, being skinny was part of my job. It felt safer somehow."

Kesha says that once she got the help she needed, it became easier to face the media. "I knew I was ready to leave when I'd gained enough confidence to get on a plane knowing there would be paparazzi at the airport at the other end. I was right - they were there. But this time, when I saw the pictures, I felt OK."