Brittany Snow Marks 17 Years of Recovery: ‘I’m So Grateful I Stayed’

Brittany Snow is marking a major personal milestone.

On September 17, the actress took to Instagram to celebrate 17 years in recovery from her eating disorder. Calling it a “golden anniversary,” she noted the date’s significance. “My movie, Parachute, is about this very day, the day I made the decision to stop hurting myself, “ she said.

Snow, 40, admitted there was a time she “couldn’t yet imagine what a life on the other side might look” like. She wasn’t sure if she had a future ahead of her, or if she’d ever learn to be kind to herself. She wrote, “Seventeen years ago, I didn’t know if I would make it.”

“If someone had told me then that I would not only live, but one day have a beautiful, full life, free from the cycle of self-destruction and my eating disorder… I truly don’t think I would have believed them,” Snow also said.

She credited her friends and family for supporting her through that period. “And somewhere underneath the noise,” she added, “there was a tiny voice inside me that kept saying: don’t give up. There is so much more to your story.”

Snow is especially grateful for the beauty and love she now enjoys but never imagined, and the opportunity to “turn around and share the hope” with others.

This isn’t the first time the “Hunting Wives” star has spoken publicly about her recovery. In a 2025 interview with Self, she described having “so much disdain” for her body throughout her childhood and teen years. “I couldn’t see myself as a functional, beautiful being. I only saw the things that were wrong with me, “ she shared, admitting she would hoard fitness magazines just to find out what others did so she could do it too.

For years, Snow battled eating disorders. As early as 19, she checked into an inpatient treatment facility, only to leave before its completion to film “John Tucker Must Die.” After multiple unsuccessful treatment stints, she finally decided to leave acting to focus on her health recovery at the age of 23. She said it was an outpatient program that ultimately saved her life.

Snow also described a breakthrough in her healing after her 2022 divorce from Tyler Stanaland. Reeling from the pain and unable to eat, she said she started talking to herself “like a kid.” That’s when she experienced a shift in the way she thought about food and her body. “I was talking to myself like someone I loved. And then I just never stopped doing that,” she said.

In a separate interview with Modern Luxury in February, Snow described the importance of her mental health to her work, saying it’s “truly the only reason I’m able to work.” She explained that for years, her lack of confidence in herself kept her from auditioning for roles, until she learned to stop second-guessing and start trusting her own instincts.

Snow’s journey has led her to a place where she can be intentional with the roles she chooses to take on, telling Modern Luxury she’s drawn to complicated, flawed characters rather than easily likable ones.

The film “Parachute,” which Snow directed, co-wrote, and produced, draws from her journey of recovery, one she hopes can offer others going through something similar a sense of hope. As she said in her post, “One day, the story you fought so hard to keep living may become the very story someone else needs to hear.”

“I’m 17 years on the other side today,” Snow wrote at the end of her post. “I’m so grateful I stayed.”