Jinger Duggar confided in her older sister Jana Duggar when she first started struggling with an eating disorder.
“I remember one time I was talking to my older sister, and I broke down and told her, I said, ‘I think I’m struggling with this because I really don’t want to eat food that’s going to make me fat,’” Jinger, 32, told sister Joy-Anna Duggar on the Wednesday, October 14, episode of their “Call Your Sister” podcast. “I said, ‘I think I’m avoiding that.’ I told her that, and I was weeping.”
Jinger struggled with disordered eating as a teenager, first confiding in Jana, now 36, that she was nervous about attending a conference with their family.
“I went on a trip to one of those Journey of the Heart things [before], and I remember I saw a girl who struggled with bulimia, and she was literally sickly and she had so many health issues,” Jinger recalled. “She looked terrible because her body was withering away and she was in a terrible place. Ultimately, I was looking at her and I’m like, ‘Just stop doing that’ as I’m over here doing the same thing in a different way ‘cause I did not have bulimia … but I was avoiding everything.”
After noticing the girl’s struggles, Jinger knew she didn’t “want to do that” or “end up like that.”
“I remember talking to Jana and maybe Jill [Duggar] was there too, but I told ‘em, I said, ‘I don’t want to do this, and I want to get accountability,’” Jinger noted. “We were not at home, so when I got back home, I told Mom everything, that I was struggling [and] how I was avoiding food. She met me with such grace and kindness and she said, ‘Jinger, I struggled with bulimia when I was young.’”
Jinger ultimately felt “reassured” after speaking with mom Michelle Duggar.
“She was not like, ‘Oh my goodness, here’s three cheeseburgers, eat them all,’ but she was like, ‘No, it’s OK, you can eat healthy food and be healthy,’” the Counting On alum noted. “She also said, ‘You don’t need to avoid food because that’s going to harm your body later.’ And so, she got me on an accountability track.”
With Michelle’s help, Jinger began using her phone to document her daily diet.
“I was one of the first ones to get a phone in the family, [and Mom] said, ‘Text me when it’s time to eat [and] you text me everything you ate,’” Jinger said. “She would also check in on me. So, we were eating meals, but if she was gone, I would text her and I would have accountability from somebody else who was there, like, ‘This is what I’m eating.’”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.
