'Idol' McPhee Bulimia Confession

[DeafMonkey]

Katharine McPhee is opening up about her five-year battle with bingeing and purging, revealing that the disorder nearly did in her voice. The "American Idol" runner-up, whose first single, "Over the Rainbow," just happens to debut next week, reveals to People that at the lowest point in her struggle with bulimia, she was vomiting up to seven times a day, which she likens to "putting a sledgehammer to your vocal cords."


"Food was my crutch," McPhee, 22, admits to the magazine. "It was how I dealt with emotions and uncomfortable situations."

And nothing says "uncomfortable situation" quite like facing Simon Cowell in all his tight-T-shirted glory, so she decided to seek treatment for her problem, which she says was "out of control" when she auditioned in August, before the competition began late last year.

"When I made it onto 'American Idol,' I knew that food -- my eating disorder -- was the one thing really holding me back," McPhee explains. "I was bingeing my whole life away for days at a time ... So when I got on the show, I said, 'You know what? I can do well in this competition. Let me give myself a chance and just get ahold of this thing.'"

To that end, she entered a three-month treatment program in October at L.A.'s Eating Disorder Center of California, where she underwent therapy sessions six days a week.

"I really had to surrender and give up having a free life to do the program, because I'd be there from 9 in the morning until 7 at night," explains McPhee, who says her parents and her actor-boyfriend, Nick Cokas, 41, supported her decision. "I remember that first night, my dad holding me, crying and saying, 'I don't know why you have to suffer through this, but it's going to be okay.'"

The singer says her diminishing figure during the "Idol" run (she lost 30 pounds and dropped three dress sizes) was due to "intuitive eating," a method promoted at the center: "If you look at a doughnut, people think it's a fattening food -- why? Because if you eat it you'll get fat? No, you'll get fat if you eat 10 doughnuts."

Katharine also "learned to deal with my emotions differently, to deal with them, instead of with food." Now, she enthuses to Teen People, "I'm really starting to embrace my curves."

She also credits "AI," a show that isn't always kind to the curvy (Simon, we're looking at you), for saving her life, "because if I hadn't auditioned I don't think I would have gotten a handle on food."



http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/Celebs/Gossip/Articles/Idol+McPhee+Bulimia+Confession.htm

wow that no good for that but her voice was so nice but yikes for being Bulimia :Ohno: