Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple, recording artist and Grammy-winning vocalist for "Criminal" from the album Tidal. Apple has been nominated for six other Grammy awards. Her latest album, Extraordinary Machine, was honored as Entertainment Weekly's best album of 2005.

• anorexia nervosa (the most likely diagnosis, though Apple claims her eating disorder was not anorexia)

Apple was raped at age 12, when she considered herself the most "voluptuous." She reasoned that her curves had been what attracted the attack, and worked to remove them.Apple at one time dropped below 100 pounds. Her eating behaviors also created anxiety in an unusual way. Said Apple: "It was colors. I couldn't eat things that looked a certain way, that were a certain color. I mean, there was a time when I couldn't eat things that I felt clashed with what I was wearing. I don't mean clash like 'fashionably clash' -- there was just something in my head that if it didn't balance, I couldn't eat it, and I was so afraid of doing the wrong thing."

Apple improved somewhat with psychotherapy, to which she returned while recording Tidal. She also notes that the encouragement of friends, including Lenny Kravitz, was a powerful positive influence. In describing their platonic relationship, Apple noted, "I ended up talking to Lenny a lot. He was the first person I could sit next to. Literally...he'll never understand how much he helped me."

Anti-anxiety medication was also helpful, although Apple had stopped taking it by the time of a 2005 interview. She has also ended her psychotherapy. She exercises (via walking) regularly.

"For me, it wasn't about getting thin, it was about getting rid of the bait that was attached to my body. A lot of it came from the self-loathing that came from being raped at the point of developing my voluptuousness. I just thought that if you had a body and if you had anything on you that could be grabbed, it would be grabbed. So I did purposely get rid of it."

Apple's habits regarding food color and having "balance" with respect to what she was wearing suggest an element of obsessive/compulsive behavior. If these behaviors are powerful enough to keep a person from eating enough to maintain weight, an eating disorder diagnosis might not be in order. But Apple also notes her desire to avoid having a curvaceous body and thus the calories that could maintain it. Many with anorexia have obsessive/compulsive behaviors, and this may simply have been a novel way for anorexia to manifest.

Sources:

Eliscu J. "Extraordinary Comeback." rollingstone.com, 2005. Accessed 21 July 2008.

Fiona Apple. Official website. Accessed 21 July 2008.

Heath C. "The Caged Bird Sings." rollingstone.com, 1998. Accessed 21 July 2008.