'Pretty Little Liars'’ Lindsey Shaw Never Addressed Her Disordered Eating Because ‘I Could Always Just Go Get More Adderall’

The actress, who played Emily’s love interest Paige, opened up about how her drug use impacted her career

Lindsey Shaw is opening up about how her disordered eating and past drug abuse impacted her career — and specifically led to her losing the part of Paige McCullers on the Freeform hit Pretty Little Liars.

“I would never have to like, address my relationship with food because I was like, ‘Oh, I could always just go get more Adderall,’” she revealed in the latest episode of PodCo's Ned's Declassified Podcast Survival Guide — which she co-hosts with her former Ned's Declassified costars Devon Werkheiser and Daniel Curtis Lee.

Adderall is a commonly prescribed stimulant medication used to treat ADHD that can also cause weight loss and suppress the appetite.

Shaw said that “it was so bad” that she was "basically let go" from the show “because of the weight that I had lost.”

“I didn't look good too skinny and then...when I started to put the weight back on, it couldn't handle it being too heavy,” Shaw said. “So it kind of like, played into this dumb cycle.”

And in season 5, she says, she was let go from the hit.

"I got called into Pretty Little Liars’ creator’s [I. Marlene King] office. And she was just like, 'So we're gonna let you go,'" she recalled. "She was like, 'It's not because of your acting, but do you have anybody to talk to?' And I was like, 'No,' you know?"

Shaw tearfully added, "She's like, 'Well, find somebody,' and 'We have to let you go now.'"

Related: Pretty Little Liars' Lindsay Shaw Recalls Being Fired in the Throes of a 'Cycle' of Drug and Eating Struggles

She said she was grateful to Shay Mitchell, who played her onscreen love interest Emily, for her support.

"We went to the same nutritionist for a while," she said of Mitchell, 36. "She was bringing me protein powder. She was like, 'Girl.' Yeah, it was awful."

“I just gave away everything I cared about,” she says about that time in her life. “I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten back to the point in my career that I was before that talk, or that meeting, or that whole season of using.”

But the actress says that now she’s in a better mental place. “You look like what you look like, you know what I mean? There are things that I enjoy so much about my body now that I can’t put words to. Even though like before, it was traditionally a little bit more thin, whatever looks good on camera so that any angle looks good on you.”

And as for Pretty Little Liars, "It was really sweet, because they brought me back in season 7," she said. "It was so lovely of that writing team to just see that relationship [between Paige and Emily] and that character out.”

Related: Lucy Hale Celebrates 1 Year of Sobriety: 'You Are Not Alone and You Are Loved'

“They did me so right,” she said, specifically mentioning PLL executive producer Joseph Dougherty for his help.

“For the mental place I’m in now, I’m so much happier,” Shaw said, later adding, “That was a wild time and it brought to me here where I am now. And for better or for worse, whatever happens in the future, like, this is the only life that I can be living. For whatever professional success was in the past, it’s not comparing to the Friday nights I can sit and enjoy a movie on my couch.”

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