The Timeless Lesson in Jennette McCurdy’s Memoir
In her debut memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy takes us on a heart-wrenching trip through her childhood and adolescence. Her storytelling is poignant yet witty as she recounts the heavy reality of her past with comical remarks that demonstrate the charisma that turned her into a beloved star in the first place. While her story is deeply relatable for a specific audience, it also destigmatizes mental illness for the general public. It sheds light on the pervasive issue of eating disorders and parental abuse.
By: Samreen Khan
Content warning: Although this post does not, the book I’m Glad My Mom Died includes detailed descriptions of eating disorder behaviors as well as emotional, verbal, spiritual, and sexual abuse. It also contains content related to OCD, PTSD, alcoholism, narcissistic personality disorder, and schizophrenia.
For many children and adults alike, being famous can be a desirable concept. To many, fame is a glamorous, unattainable pot at the end of the rainbow. But Jennette McCurdy’s new book shatters this fantasy, revealing the thinly veiled, tragic reality that lies beyond what we see. She digs deep into her memory and discloses her traumatic experiences as a child actor forced to deal with various eating disorders and forms of abuse.
Shedding Light on the Nuances of Eating Disorders
McCurdy recounts her complex relationship with her late mother, who micromanaged nearly every aspect of her life for decades. Upon coercing a young Jennette into acting, her mother introduced her to restrictive eating habits, kickstarting over a decade of disordered eating behaviors that McCurdy would struggle to break free from time and time again. She highlights the intense connection between her OCD and her anorexia, which she eventually discovered was not unusual among eating disorder patients. She also draws attention to the distinction between various eating disorders in the entertainment industry, an important but not-talked conversation.
.McCurdy’s Road to Recovery
Eating disorder recovery is often trivialized to simply normalizing one’s eating habits. But McCurdy challenges this misconception by chronicling the long and harrowing journey that led her to recovery. Her first successful attempt at recovery was far from her very first attempt at recovery. But her memoir shows that her persistence is inspiring.
She describes the terrifying feeling of identity loss that comes with losing your eating disorder – a sensation at the forefront of her mind upon her mother's passing and her haphazard path through anorexia, bulimia, and alcohol addiction. Many individuals with eating disorders experience multiple eating disorders and mental disorders during their lifetime due to the difficult nature of learning to cope with one’s emotions instead of numbing them. McCurdy does not romanticize her recovery; she shares the powerfully relatable tales of post-dinner panic attacks, denial-filled therapy sessions, and anxiety-inducing social events.
Toward the end of the book, McCurdy shares a crucial piece of advice: “Slips are totally normal. When you have a slip, it’s just that. A slip. It doesn’t define you. It doesn’t make you a failure. The most important thing is that you don’t let that slip become a slide.” Recovery is about continuing the journey, no matter how often you must stop.
It’s Not Just Jennette McCurdy
Unfortunately, McCurdy’s personal experiences with parental abuse, trauma, and mental illness are not exclusive. Eating disorders and parental relationships are tightly intertwined. Up to 60% of eating disorders are generational, indicating that due to various social, biological, and genetic factors, eating disorders tend to run in the family. The abuse Jennette McCurdy suffered was an extreme example of this, and her memoir reveals the powerful influence family has on a child’s relationship with food.
In addition, she is one of many former child stars to acknowledge her struggle with eating disorders. Many celebrities who lose their childhoods to chasing stardom experience eating disorders blossoming under the limelight. Although awareness of this issue has increased substantially in the past few decades, the negative ramifications of fame on children have not changed. The problem persists as people have realized just how “easy” it is to attain quasi-fame on social media. The specific trope of parents pushing their children into the spotlight has only evolved in various ways over the years as trends fade in and out.
McCurdy’s courageous and vulnerable narrative exemplifies how scarcely children are equipped to deal with the scrutiny and pressure that accompany fame, resulting in not only decades of trauma but the loss of a crucial part of one’s life. Her groundbreaking memoir informs us to look beyond the screen and instead highlight what’s possible with adequate care and lasting recovery.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating behaviors and body image issues. In addition to our full-time Day Treatment Program and Weeknight Intensive Outpatient Program, we offer high-quality programming, nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, and various other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
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This post was written by BALANCE Blog Contributor, Samreen Khan (she/her/he/him).
Samreen is a high school graduate with an ardent drive to de-stigmatize mental illness and eating disorders. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she experienced the harmful effects of “fitspo” culture firsthand for most of her childhood. Throughout her own recovery journey, she became passionate about deconstructing diet culture and raising awareness about eating disorders in her everyday life. Samreen began extending her own ideology of intuitive eating and body neutrality to others by publishing her own writing online when she was fourteen, and has since received several awards for her prose and poetry. She has conducted research on the biological and evolutionary implications of familial mental illness, and is currently taking college-level Sociology and Psychology courses with hopes to delve further into the social and cultural constructs that bolster disordered eating, especially within marginalized communities. She’s grateful for the opportunity to combine two of her strongest passions — writing and mental health — by working with BALANCE!