Her character Jenna Hamilton has had a fair share of struggles over the years on Awkward, but star Ashley Rickards is opening up about a very scary one she herself has dealt with that has affected her deeply.

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The actress, 22, is opening up for the first time in her new book, A Real Guide To Really Getting It Together Once And For All (Really), about her own personal struggle with an eating disorder since she was just seven years old, and in an interview with People about the experience, Rickards reveals for the first time just how much it affected her life.

"I was chubby and a neighbor of mine said, 'We don't need to go to Krispy Kreme, you've got a jelly roll right there!'" she recalls. "This sort of dysmorphic idea of myself is still in my head. I'm still that girl. I still feel like that in a swimsuit."

Rickards also admits that she hit a major low point while filming an episode during one of the earlier seasons of her hit MTV show.

"I purged a lot one day and I got dizzy," she said. I didn't know what was happening. I was shaking and I was sweating. I was cold, and I couldn't keep anything down. I was nauseous.  I thought I was going to pass out, so I called 9-1-1."

However, she admits it is still an ongoing struggle, as her experience wasn't one that caused her to seek help.

"Even that wasn't enough to scare me into stopping completely," she admitted. "I really had to meet people who were open about their own struggles, and I had to open up to my cast members and talk about it with them. I had to talk about it with my therapist and work on it from a clinical angle, because it's a psychological thing, too."

As for why she is now opening up about the struggle, she says she hopes her confession will help others going through the disease and encourage them to come forward if they are still suffering in private.

"I wanted girls to know it's a very real thing and it comes in so many shapes and sizes,"  she said. "I wanted to raise awareness about it because it's sort of a taboo subject. I don't want anyone to have to feel alone when they're in that sort of dark, secretive world."

Rickards is currently filming the fifth and final season of Awkward.

Tags: Awkward MTV television Ashley Rickards