American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi battled an eating disorder as a teenager.

“It was an eating disorder. I actually went into a treatment center for it.”

“I had kind of a binge eating disorder where instead of dealing with my emotions, I would stuff them down with food. I never threw up or starved myself,” the outspoken songwriter revealed in an interview with the television newsmagazine Extra.

Kara explains, “It was definitely that excess eating to kind of just stuff all the emotions down and the emotions were that I really was a creative kid who didn’t know she was creative and didn’t have those outlets because I was always afraid to join the theater group and not perform.”

For Kara, learning to properly channel her creativity and discovering her love of music became her way out.

“The moment I started doing music, the moment I did what I loved to do in my life and committed to it, I don’t have those problems anymore…”