Camila Mendes Opens Up About Struggles With Bulimia, Body Image, and Perfectionism During ‘Riverdale’

Content warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating behaviors.

Camila Mendes recently opened up about one of the darkest periods of her career. Appearing on the latest episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, titled “Perfectionism Was Ruining My Life,” the Brazilian American actress revealed how the intense demands of filming Riverdale not only triggered debilitating panic attacks but also forced her to confront an eating disorder she was quietly struggling with since high school. She reflected on how seven years of filming the hit CW series created what she described as a “pressure cooker” environment that left little room for mistakes, imperfections, and emotions. 

“I developed panic attacks through my experience on Riverdale,” Mendes said. “I didn’t have panic attacks before, and I don’t have them anymore, really. And not because of anything other than just the nature of being on a show for that long and not having time to do anything outside of work.”

She described the pace of network TV—10 months of filming each year, long hours, and constant pressure—as consuming her entire life. There was little opportunity for Mendes to process what was happening outside of work.

“There was no time for human error sometimes,” she said. “Let’s say I’m dealing with a stressful situation that has nothing to do with work… And then I have someone knocking on my door being like, ‘They’re ready for you on set.’ And I’m like crying because of the situation that I’m dealing with. And now my makeup is ruined… Everyone on set is waiting. Now I feel the pressure that I’m the reason why we’re behind.”

The relentless pressure eventually became so overwhelming that Mendes said she was prescribed lorazepam to help her get through the workday.

“I had to get prescribed lorazepam so I could literally numb myself and be able to show up and work,” she said. “Because otherwise if I let myself get into this panic and I start crying and hyperventilating… I just couldn’t handle it at a certain point.”

Mendes also said the show amplified a years-long struggle with bulimia and body-focused perfectionism. “My perfectionism came a lot where I just always felt like I needed to be on all the time and at my best and looking my best,” she explained.

Although she’d been living with an eating disorder since high school, Riverdale forced her to confront it in ways she hadn’t before. Playing Veronica Lodge often left her feeling exposed; wearing revealing, form-fitting clothing and costumes intensified insecurity and, at times, panic attacks before filming.

“I would just sometimes have panic attacks about that—of feeling so disgusting and needing to be on camera and just not being able to accept the way that I looked,” she says.

She emphasized that the harshest criticism came from her own internal standards. “I never actually experienced criticism about my body from anybody but myself,” she said. “It was always just my own internal standards for myself.”

She also described feeling overwhelmed by natural body changes in her early twenties. “My body was changing,” she said. “I look at pictures of myself then, and I do look different. My body was different. This happens a lot as a woman in your early 20s. Your body changes. And I didn’t know how to deal with it. It was very overwhelming.”

The experience ultimately led Mendes to seek professional support from an eating disorder therapist and a nutritionist. A key breakthrough, she said, was stopping restrictive patterns (including cutting carbs), which had fueled bingeing and purging.

“The only reason why I was doing that is that I was depriving myself,” she said. “She was like, ‘If you give yourself permission to eat the things that you want, you’ll find that you don’t want them that badly.'”

The advice transformed her recovery. She said she now has a healthier relationship with food: “I’m so fortunate to say that I’ve healed from it so much so that it’s such a distant memory to me now,” she said. “At the time, I never thought that it would go away. I genuinely didn’t think that was possible.”

Now, even while training for physically demanding roles, she aims for balance rather than restriction.

“I need to finish dinner with a sweet treat always,” she laughed. “Even when I was training for Masters of the Universe… I was like, ‘Please don’t take away my dark chocolate. Cut my rice in half. Don’t take my dark chocolate at the end of the night.'”

Her advice to young women dealing with body image or disordered eating: seek professional help.

“I couldn’t do it alone. I needed professional help,” she said. “Because sometimes the people around you sort of send you right back into that loop. People who don’t know any better will say things to you that will actually encourage those negative ways of thinking. They’ll comment on your body … I remember when I was my most depressed, I lost a lot of weight because I wasn’t eating … and that’s when I would get the most compliments.”

Those comments, she says, only reinforced harmful beliefs about what her body “should” look like.

“When people stop saying that to you, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m fat.’ Those are the types of comments that send you back into a negative way of thinking,” she said.

While she still has moments of insecurity, Mendes said that today the thoughts don’t control her the way they once did.

“It took a year. I don’t know if that’s the case for everybody, but that’s what it took for me, and now I’m so removed from it. And I have such a healthy relationship to food,” she said. “And yeah, sometimes I get insecure about my body, but it’s not this all-encompassing feeling … I have such a healthier relationship where I just trust myself.”

With eating disorders affecting Latinas at rates comparable to—or, in some cases, higher than—white women, and Latina teens being more likely to experience bulimia than their white peers, Mendes’ comments land in a broader context: research suggests Latinas are less likely to receive eating disorder treatment, often due to cultural stigma, barriers to care, and misconceptions about who develops these conditions.

Many Latinas—particularly those born and raised in the U.S.—also grow up hearing frequent comments about weight and appearance, often framed as concern or affection. Those remarks can still shape body image and contribute to disordered eating and low self-esteem. Mendes sharing her experience and encouraging professional support helps challenge stigma and reminds others that recovery is possible.