My place.

I had an idea to try to communicate a life experience that I had gone through that I still feel like a lot of people in my life never really understood, or that I couldn’t really communicate.

GET TO KNOW ME MEME: [1/15] platonic relationships • Allison & Lydia “And you are my new best friend.” 

I was 3 years into my recovery from anorexia and I still had trouble describing to people that struggling with an eating disorder was more than just not wanting to eat. Mental illness is very complicated and for the most part invisible. If someone is physically ill often you can see the outward manifestations of their illness or injury and offer to help to alleviate that pain or work towards restoring health. Your leg is broken? Here is a cast to help you mend the bone. You have a fever? Stay in bed and drink lots of fluids, etc.. But a mental illness?  There is no scan of the brain that can detect an eating disorder, but it is still the deadliest mental illness, recovery is incredibly difficult and death tragically common. This is a disease that is acutely painful; life threatening, but at times it can make no outward appearance. Yes, sometimes people with an eating disorder lose weight in such a drastic way that you can see them as clearly needing help, but often people battling with this illness can look totally “healthy” on the outside and have a war raging inside against themselves. It’s horrible and beyond that, it’s also greatly misunderstood and not spoken about often enough.

I almost quit acting. I was in America. I used to come here once or twice a year with my husband. I already had [my daughter] Alma. I had so many “almost [got the part]” and camera tests that I was just sick of them. The rejection was the hardest part about being an actor here. 

I don’t pay attention to fame. It’s just a side effect. Being very famous in Israel for many years now, I am used to what’s going on here with the paparazzi. It’s just white noise. The only great thing about it is that, now, I don’t have to go through exhausting auditions.

art

Ashley Benson at the Port of Cannes in Cannes, France on May 22, 2017

Ashley Benson out & about in Cannes, France on May 21, 2017