Sara Evans is getting candid about some personal issues that she has been going through. The singer revealed that she has an eating disorder and struggles with body dysphoria.
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Appearing on former Dancing With the Stars dancer Cheryl Burke's Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, Evans opened up about dealing with an eating disorder. She said that she has a lot of fear when it comes to her own body and being perceived as fat. She frets about her appearance and what others might think. It bothers her what people say.
"I won't say that it doesn't," she said. "I have an eating disorder. I'm more scared of being fat than anything in the world, and that's not good. That's not normal."
For instance, she remembers her record label being critical after she had a baby."My record label, every time I had a baby, they would be like, 'When's she gonna lose weight?' " Evans recalled. "So things like that would just get in my head."
Evans believes that it stems from wanting to please everyone. "I'm a people-pleaser," she told Burke. "Like, if I'm skinny and I'm pretty and I did a good show, then I'm loved...and I want to feel loved no matter what."
Sara Evans Talks Anxiety
It can be complete strangers that bother Evans as well. Evans remembers a particularly brutal comment about her appearance, "What happened to your face?"
She said it "bothered me all day long," she adds. "I just wanted to respond, like, 'How dare you?' I haven't done anything to my face. I've had Botox... You wanna know what happened to my face? I'm 52."
Previously, Evans opened up to People about having both anxiety and PTSD. She said her anxiety dates back to childhood. She told the outlet, "I had severe PTSD and anxiety, but it was the '80s, and I didn't have a name for it. I don't think my mother even thought, like, 'Maybe I should take her to therapy.' I thought I could handle it because I'm tough." Evans ended up getting medicine to treat her anxiety.
"It calmed me down," she said of the medication. "Taking it also made me realize you're not going to be this way forever. I always tell my kids, 'The toll that anxiety takes on your body and on your mind, I think, is so much worse than if you have to take [medication] to calm down.' "
