Zosia Mamet, daughter of Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet, has opened up about her lifelong eating disorder in her monthly column for the September issue of Glamour magazine.

In the article, Mamet, 26, revealed that she has suffered with the affliction since the age of eight, and likens her struggle to that of “an addict in recovery”.

“This struggle has been mostly a private one, a war nobody knew was raging inside me,” explained Mamet. “I tried to fight it alone for a long time. And I nearly died.”

According to the actress, the trouble began when she was called “fat” at a young age and it affected her greatly. “I was told I was fat for the first time when I was eight. I’m not fat; I’ve never been fat. But ever since then, there has been a monster in my brain that tells me I am — that convinces me my clothes don’t fit or that I’ve eaten too much.”

Mamet goes on to say that her disorder was stemmed in part from society’s expectations of an ideal definition of beauty. “You want to control something, and then society says, ‘Hey, how about controlling the way you look? Skinny is beautiful,'” said Mamet. “Your obsession feels justified.”

Her father soon intervened, realizing that she was in trouble and he refused to let her go on living this way. “(He) eventually got me into treatment. He came home one night from a party, took me by the shoulders, and said, ‘You’re not allowed to die.’ It was the first time I realized this wasn’t all about me. I didn’t care if I died, but my family did.”

Although her treatment was not entirely successful at first due to a relapse, Mamet has worked to achieve a healthy weight and is recovering well. “I’m at a healthy weight, though I realize that my obsession will always be with me in some way,” wrote the actress.

She encourages anyone else who is going through the same ordeal to seek help and not feel ashamed. “Let’s remind one another that we’re beautiful.”