To her high school friends, Jamie-Lynn DiScala seemed to have it all: She was thin, beautiful and headed for fame, chosen from among hundreds to play Tony Soprano’s daughter, Meadow, on HBO’s “The Sopranos.”
But in reality, DiScala’s life was caving in. Scared, insecure and desperately sick, the 16-year-old high school junior was starving and exercising herself to death. In the end, she almost lost her family, her job and her life.
“I was so depressed and so lost. I had lost myself. And I was losing my friends and family,” says DiScala, now 22. “I was shutting everyone out. I got to the point where I didn’t even want to live anymore.”
DiScala, formerly Jamie-Lynn Sigler who last summer married her former manager A.J. DiScala, is open about her eating disorder. More impressive, she takes time to travel to colleges nationwide for the National Eating Disorder Association to educate people about the illness.
DiScala’s eating disorder battle is not uncommon. About 10 million girls and women and as many as 1 million boys or young men nationwide suffer from some form of the disease, according to the National Eating Disorder Association in Seattle. Even more people struggle with eating issues but don’t develop full-blown, clinical cases that land them in therapy or hospitals, the association says.
“These are my peers,” says DiScala, who has taken classes at New York University and worked on the set of “The Sopranos” for six years. “So I can relate to them.
“They are away from home for the first time without someone monitoring their lifestyles, and it’s overwhelming. This is where an eating disorder can begin.”
The start of DiScala’s eating disorder, chronicled in her book, “Wise Girl,” began in high school after a breakup with her boyfriend. She lost so much weight, she says, that she could not fit into size 0 clothing. Instead, she started wearing children’s sizes. Her behavior became obsessive.
She was up at 4 a.m. for two hours of exercise before sunrise. Dinner was a fat-free yogurt.
“All my energy and focus went into the eating disorder,” she says. “All I was doing was worrying about food, exercise and the calories I was eating.”
DiScala also worried that some of her girlfriends, jealous about her television success, were happy to see her sick.
Fortunately, she was able to acknowledge that she had a problem.
“It’s not about the food or your body,” DiScala says about the underlying causes of eating disorders. “It’s about emotions. So I couldn’t have done it without the therapy. For me, that was key.”
After DiScala started therapy, she says, she was able to slowly put herself back on a path toward good health.
Gradually, she returned to a healthy weight. Ironically, some of her television fans complained that she had gained too much weight. Some fans posted nasty messages on her Web site, discussing her weight gain and calling her fat.
Finally, without consulting cast members, directors or consultants, she took matters into her own hands. She wrote an e-mail to her fans, explaining her illness and asking for their support. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
“For me,” she adds, “it’s worthwhile speaking out if I can help just one other person through a very difficult time.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
