Felicia Chin felt 'useless', couldn't deal with the stress after joining Mediacorp and developed eating disorder

It's quite common to hear of people dealing with work stress by snacking. But for local actress Felicia Chin, it developed into an eating disorder.

On the latest episode of the meWATCH talkshow Hear U Out, the 36-year-old told local host Quan Yi Fong that when she just entered showbiz, she would buy and consume two bags of food from convenience store 7-Eleven every day after work.

Felicia, who was only 18 when she became the overall female champion in Star Search 2003, said: "I felt sad. I felt that I didn't do well [in my acting]... Sometimes, I simply couldn't understand and execute certain things."

She raised the example of a 'response' scene where she had to emote while leaning against a wall, and she couldn't nail it although the director had already given her two chances. In the end, the director had to walk her through the scene and told her to just do whatever he said.

The actress confessed that she felt "very disappointed" and "useless", and she would take those emotions back home. When asked whether binge eating made her feel better, she replied that she felt worse.

She said: "After I saw the opened wrappers and the empty boxes of ice cream, I was shocked by the amount I ate. I'd be in a worse state for the morning shift the next day because my eyes would be swollen from all the salt intake.

"Because of all these emotions, I felt that I shouldn't continue with these eating and sleeping patterns. My face was getting rounder. It wasn't healthy for me. I wanted to purge all that and so I would puke."

Felicia admitted to making herself throw up. Her condition lasted for around two years and people were none the wiser. While the make-up artists wondered why her eyes were swollen, no one else suspected a thing.

She also shared that she received "fewer words of encouragement" in the first few years of her career but she met many actors who were kind to her, such as veteran actresses Xiang Yun, Pan Lingling, and Hong Konger Louise Lee.

Besides, Felicia confessed that she was someone who would keep unhappiness to herself.

"My friends were still in school and it was also hard for me to talk about such things. I'm not the kind who would tell others about my unhappy feelings. I think it would sound like I'm complaining," she said.

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bryanlim@asiaone.com