Gemma Oaten says "all her own worries disappear" when she is playing a character.
Gemma Oaten
The former 'Emmerdale' star - who has spoken openly about how her mum "battled to save" her life during her 13-year battle with anorexia - has previously suffered a heart attack as a teenager, but she can switch off from any issues when she takes on another role.
She said: "As an actor you get to be somebody and not be yourself.
"As myself I've had some amazing experiences. But I've also had some really frightening ones, like a heart attack in my late teens.
"But when I'm a character in screen all my own worries; am I healthy enough to have children of my own one day? Is it too late to make something of my life? Did I forget to empty the washing machine? They all disappear."
Gemma admits she adored portraying Rachel - who she played more than 350 times from 2011 to 2015 - because the character wouldn't hold back in her views, but also "had a good heart".
She said: "The thing I love about playing Rachel was, 'You think it and she'll say it.'
"She had a good heart."
During the worst of her eating disorder hell, Gemma was told she would die if she didn't "eat and drink within 24 hours".
Speaking in a TEDx Talk in Norwich, eastern England, she added: "At 12 years old a medical assessment pulled me from my home and into a psychiatric unit.
"I was so weak they had to push me in a wheelchair and I was told that if I didn't eat and drink within 24 hours that I'd be dead."
Gemma has previously opened up about nearly dying four times during her anorexia battle.
She wrote: "For 13 years anorexia took over my life and nearly took my life. It was a rollercoaster. Truly. One minute I'd be fed up (literally) in hospital, a psychiatric unit or an eating disorders unit and the next I'd lose the weight because my mind still wasn't fed properly...the issues I had were in my state of mental health. Anorexia was my control, my comfort, my escape... Or so I thought. No problem we have mentally is ever resolved unless we talk and feel it. I spent my teens in and out of these units and hospitals. But it wasn't until I found a way of being able to talk and address that I truly began to get better. I nearly died 4 times... That's the power mental health has when it's goes wrong. I was unsure whether to share the photos but they are mild in terms of how truly ill I was, I don't think I could ever show those ones. It's too disturbing, for me and others. My point is, I'm not ashamed of my past struggles. They moulded the woman I am today in so many ways. I wish I had spoke out sooner and had the correct help I needed but that was then and this is now... Conversations are happening and it makes me so happy and proud that we now know openly... It's OK to not be OK. It's OK, we're not perfect, and why would we want to be? Who defines that? (sic)"
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