A “Golden Anniversary” — 17 Years on the Other Side
“I didn’t know if I would make it,” Brittany Snow wrote to her followers recently. Seventeen years ago, she said, she couldn’t see a future — and “certainly couldn’t imagine one where I would learn to be kind to myself.”
Now she can. And if you’re struggling with an eating disorder right now, she wants you to know something: she is standing on the other side of exactly where you are.
What Happened
On Thursday, September 17, the 40-year-old actress shared a personal post marking 17 years of recovery from anorexia and bulimia. She opened it with a trigger warning — “TW: ED” — and then spoke directly to anyone in the thick of it.
She called it a “golden anniversary”: the day, 17 years ago, she made the decision to stop hurting herself. She tied the milestone to her directorial debut film Parachute, which she has described as being about that very day — “the day I chose to bet on myself, even when I couldn’t yet imagine what a life on the other side might look like.”
Her message to those struggling was simple: “You are not alone. There is life beyond the place you are in today, even if you can’t picture it yet.”
Why It Matters
Celebrities talk about recovery in different ways. Some posts feel like announcements. This one felt like a hand reaching back.
Eating disorders are isolating by nature — they thrive in secrecy and shame. When someone in the public eye says, plainly, “Seventeen years ago, I didn’t know if I would make it,” it punctures the myth that recovery is only for other people. It gives the rest of us a timeline that isn’t one week or one month, but seventeen years — proof that recovery isn’t a phase you white-knuckle through, but a life you get to keep building.
Her words about self-kindness matter clinically, too. Recovery from an eating disorder isn’t only about changing eating behaviors; it’s about changing the relationship you have with yourself. That’s the harder, quieter work — and it’s the work treatment is built around.
What People Are Saying
The response to Snow’s post has been overwhelmingly grateful. In comments and shares, people in recovery described her post as the message they needed on a hard day, and others shared their own recovery anniversaries in reply. A recurring theme: it helped to hear from someone who didn’t just survive — who, seventeen years later, calls her life “beautiful” and “full.”
She closed with gratitude for her family and friends — “My friends saw me, heard me, helped me. My family loved me through it” — a reminder that recovery almost never happens alone.
So many of my patients tell me they waited years to ask for help — they thought they had to hit some version of “bad enough” first. Watching someone like Brittany Snow talk openly about 17 years of recovery breaks that myth. Recovery doesn’t require rock bottom; it just requires a first step. And my team and I are here to help you take it — you don’t have to carry this alone anymore.
— Kimberly Kaestner, Founder (PMHNP-BC, FNP-C) | Psych Wellness Spa
Mental Health Context
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) estimates that roughly 9% of Americans — about 28.8 million people — will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. And yet, according to NIMH treatment data, only about a third of adults with anorexia (33.8%), and fewer than half of those with bulimia (43.2%) or binge eating disorder (43.6%), ever receive treatment specifically for their eating disorder.
That’s the gap Snow’s post is aimed at: most people who need help aren’t getting it — often because they don’t believe they deserve it yet, or that it will work. Eating disorders are treatable, and full recovery is possible with treatment — and millions of people are living proof.
Our psychiatrists offer evidence-based mental health treatment through convenient telehealth visits — see us from anywhere in California. No commute, no waiting room. Schedule your appointment today.
What You Can Do
- Name it out loud. Tell one trusted person — a friend, a family member, a primary care doctor — what you’re dealing with. Secrecy feeds eating disorders; honesty starves them.
- Start with a conversation, not a commitment. A psychiatric evaluation is not a contract. It’s one conversation with someone who treats this every day, and it can be done from your living room via telehealth.
- Borrow someone else’s hope. You don’t have to believe recovery is possible yet. You only have to let someone else — a provider, a support group, Snow’s 17-year milestone — hold that belief for you until you can.
If this week felt heavy, reach out to us or call 949-710-3958. We offer compassionate, evidence-based psychiatric care across California via telehealth.
If you’re in crisis: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline | Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741
