HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Kara DioGuardi is opening up for the first time about her early struggles with an eating disorder.
"I had kind of a binge eating disorder where instead of dealing with my emotions, I would stuff them down with food," the "American Idol" judge confessed to Extra. "I actually went into a treatment center for it."
The 38-year-old DioGuardi said she never threw up or starved herself, but the disease kept her on an emotional rollercoaster.
"It was definitely that excess eating to kind of just stuff all the emotions down," she explained. "I really was a creative kid who didn't know she was creative and didn't have those outlets because I was always afraid to join the theater group and not perform."
DioGuardi said it was her passion for music that eventually made her healthy.
"The moment I started doing music, the moment I did what I loved to do in my life and committed to it, I don't have those problems anymore ... I have my outlet," she explains. "I have that form of expression. I can go to the studio and talk about my feelings."
Just as music helped her, DioGuardi is hoping to do the same for others battling an eating disorder. She has built a recording studio inside Phoenix House, a Los Angeles treatment center helping recovering addicts heal through music.
"It's real therapeutic," she said of the program.
While healthy now, DioGuardi said she still has her moments of struggle, particularly with the pressures of being on America's top program.
"I had this craziness in my head that I had to be perfect all the time and I face it now on 'Idol' 25 years later," she said. "It's kind of, 'Oh god, why did I say that? Why did I do this?' -- but I made this commitment in my life to face my fears and if I am afraid of something I make sure I do it."
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