Sam Smith has the “opposite” of body dysmorphia.
The ‘Unholy’ singer has struggled with the mental disorder, where someone becomes obsessed by a perceived flaw in their appearance but, these days, are extremely confident in their body.
The pop star said: “Within my industry, there is definitely that question of: ‘What should a pop star look like?'”
They continued in an interview with “The Sunday Times” newspaper: “When I was 25, I came off tour exhausted. I looked to role models in the body world. Every time I went to the pool, I felt self-conscious but I forced myself to take my top off.”
They added: “It paid off because I now have the opposite of body dysmorphia. I look fabulous. I’m finally getting a tan. I’m burnt in places I’ve never been burnt.”
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Smith shared how they “starved” themselves and thought they were overweight despite shedding the pounds.
When asked about their sad face on the cover of their 2017 LP “Thrill of It All”, Smith replied: “I mean, I was starving. I was hungry. I was genuinely hungry.
“It’s a wild thing to look back, actually, at some of those pictures and be like: ‘Whoa!’ Because I think people don’t realise I’m 6ft2. I’m a big person. But to get myself to, I got to like 13 stone (82kg). I was smaller. I had complete body dysmorphia.
“I thought I was big. I thought I was overweight, which is quite scary. And I think it was a reaction to fame, I think it was a control mechanism within my second album because there was a lot of pressure out around me on that record and the pressure I put on myself.
“But also, I think I needed to do it because I always needed to get to that weight in a weird way… It is crazy. Also, I remember with that cover, actually for ‘Thrill of It All’, I deliberately chose the one where I looked really sick.
“Because the album was meant to be dark. It was meant to feel dark. It was meant to feel exhausted because that’s what I was, and that was the honest place I was in and I wasn’t worried about sharing that. So, I definitely chose the cover that was true and honest.”