Half Baked Harvest's Tieghan Gerard Is Being Treated 'Privately' for Anxiety, Says It Makes Her Forget to Eat

The recipe developer spoke about her mental health struggles and the negative comments she gets from followers

Tieghan Gerard opened up about her mental health struggles.

In a profile from The New York Times, the Half Baked Harvest founder spoke about the negative comments she gets from followers about her weight.

She told the newspaper that she does not have an eating disorder. She said she has suffered chronic social and separation anxiety, and that she is being treated for those “privately.” The recipe developer revealed that to cope she sometimes leans into long work hours, which leads her to forget to sleep and eat.

Her struggle with anxiety has kept her living close to family in Colorado, where she writes and photographs for her blog and cookbooks, since she was 14, according to NYT. She dropped out of school in Los Angeles due to homesickness, the outlet added.

Her mother, Jen Gerard, who helms the business side of her daughter’s brand, also spoke to NYT about the concern over Tieghan’s weight.

“It’s unfortunate that people feel entitled to comment on someone being underweight, when they would never do that if the person was overweight,” said Jen.

Related: Half Baked Harvest's Tieghan Gerard Responds to 'Negative Comments' About Her Weight

In July, Gerard addressed fans’ comments on her weight for the first time while on the Mimi podcast. She told host Mimi Bouchard about the pros and cons of her foodie fame.

Gerard, who started her blog back in 2012, has since grown 5.4 million Instagram followers, which she calls “the most loyal community.” But not all of her followers focus on the recipes she shares. The blogger has seen more negative comments "pick up in the past year, especially since I’ve become more forward-facing," she said.

"I think because I’m in food and I’m a very tiny person, I get a lot of negative comments about my weight and all these things," she said, "and it’s just like, you don’t know me. You don’t know how I live my life.”

“It is so sad and at first it killed me,” Gerard added.

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Bouchard asked the cookbook author how she deals with comments that "genuinely come from a place of concern." Gerard explained that if a fan messages her directly with concerns then she will reply, whether they are being “so hurtful or [they're] being so genuine and kind.”

"I'll just respond with the truth. I have nothing to hide. I think that's all you can do," she said.

But she feels differently when they publicly comment.

“If someone is leaving something in a public space, I don’t tend to give it energy because I think you’re not doing it out of best interest," she said, "and I don’t want to feed the comment threads because if I jump in then it is just going to create more commentary around it.”

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