Daniella Monet Was 'Down to Abercrombie Kid Sizes' and ‘Always in Pain’ While Dealing with IBS as a Teen
The ‘Victorious’ alum shared that any time she ate, it would ‘come right out of me’
During an episode of The Squeeze podcast, Daniella Monet looked back on dealing with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which she says at one point caused her to drop below 80 lbs.
The Victorious alum said she wore “Abercrombie kid sizes” because she was so small
She also said that she stopped having her period because she’d lost so much weight
Daniella Monet is reflecting on dealing with irritable bowel syndrome in her teens — and sharing how she’d been on medication for her condition that caused her to drop a significant amount of weight.
The Victorious alum spoke to Taylor Lautner and his wife Taylor on a recent episode of their podcast, The Squeeze, where she said she sought medical help after “I was having problems with my stomach and digesting food.”
Monet said that a doctor diagnosed her with IBS, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a chronic condition that affects the stomach and intestines, causing ”cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation.”
Now 35, the actress said she was put on prescription medication and over-the-counter laxatives — a combination of medicines, Monet said “destroyed me.”
She shared that at the time, she was dealing with strains on her mental and physical health, including her parents separating and a two-hour commute to a studio for work.
Related: Daniella Monet, Fiancé Andrew Gardner Welcome Daughter Ivry: 'We Couldn't Be More in Love'
“Now I can look back and say, well, that seems like there's quite a bit of environmental stuff that was happening,” Monet explained, adding that doctors “weren't saying, like, ‘Oh, she might be stressed. Maybe she's not sleeping enough. Maybe she's not drinking enough water. Maybe she's not getting the best nutrition. Like, maybe she's not having time to move her body properly.’ ”
Instead, she said she “was put on all of these meds.”
Monet, who starred on the Nickelodeon hit from 2010 to 2013, said she “dropped so much weight from being on all these meds” that she stopped having her period for nearly five years.
“Imagine you would eat food,” she told the hosts, and it would “come right out of me. And it was so uncomfortable. I was always in pain.”
She shared that her weight loss led to conversations with the wardrobe department and the network.
“You're dropping all these sizes. You're down to, like, Abercrombie kid sizes, and they're letting the hem out of the jeans to make them longer because I had no waist," she revealed.
“I was literally at my lowest, maybe, like, high 70 lbs. at 16 years old,” which is around when she appeared on Zoey 101 and the CBS sitcom, Listen Up.
“I was so, so thin, and everyone was trying to look at me and say, like, ‘Is she throwing up? Is she anorexic?’ ”
And while Monet acknowledged, “Sure, there was a lot of these pressures all around me, but you can't ignore the part about all these new meds being in me."
Monet shared that she felt she had to “take the reins” on her health, and began treating her IBS with a “holistic wellness” approach — which helped her regain weight.
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“Let me tell you, going from that weight to about 130 lbs. in a very short period of time was a ride — mentally, physically, emotionally.”
But Monet, who now has her own wellness site, Daniella’s Digest, says, “Your body is amazing, and your body keeps the score, and my body did just that. It had to do what it had to do to get to a point where I felt my best again, but it doesn't happen overnight. “
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