Brittany Snow reflects on 17 years of eating disorder recovery: 'I’m so grateful I stayed'

Trigger warning: This article has mentions of eating disorder

Actress Brittany Snow is looking back on a major personal milestone: 17 years in recovery from an eating disorder.

The Beast in Me star took to Instagram on Thursday to commemorate the occasion, writing, "Today, September 17th, marks 17 years of recovery for me. I’ve heard they call that a golden anniversary. And somehow, that feels fitting."

Snow shared that her directorial debut, Parachute, was inspired by "the day I made the decision to stop hurting myself."

Reflecting on how far she has come, the actress admitted she once struggled to picture a future.

"Seventeen years ago, I didn’t know if I would make it. I couldn’t see a future, and I certainly couldn’t imagine one where I would learn to be kind to myself," she wrote. "If someone had told me then that I would not only live, but one day have a beautiful, full life, free from the cycle of self-destruction and my eating disorder… I truly don’t think I would have believed them."

Snow credited her support system—the people who "heard [her], helped [her]... and loved [her] through it"—as well as her own inner resilience.

"Somewhere underneath the noise, there was a tiny voice inside me that kept saying: don’t give up. There is so much more to your story," she recalled. "There was so much beauty ahead that I couldn’t see yet. So much love. And one of the greatest gifts of making it through is being able to turn around and share the hope I couldn’t see possible."

Closing her post with a message of encouragement for anyone currently struggling, Snow reminded them that recovery is possible.

"So many people have stood where you are standing. There is life beyond the place you are in today, even if you can’t picture it yet," she urged. "One day, the story you fought so hard to keep living may become the very story someone else needs to hear. I’m 17 years on the other side today. I’m so grateful I stayed."

Snow is open about her past struggles with eating disorders and self harm. In a 2017 interview with Shape, the Hunting Wives actress spoke about the effects of the portrayal of women in media and how it affected her health.

"I wanted to be like the girls I saw in fitness magazines so badly. I thought that was the ideal of happiness. Now people look to me like that when I do photo shoots," Snow said. "I wish someone had told me back then that the way a woman looks in a photo has nothing to do with who she is." 

She said that entering her 30s made her realize that her "health and happiness were way more important than being at the gym all the time."