<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I feel like I&amp;#x27;m about to tell you a deep-dark secret, and I am. When I was about 16, a certain boyfriend made a comment about my arms--something about how I could stand to tone up a bit. It hurt. The next day, I went to the drug store and picked up a bottle of ... **** ...Dexatrim! I took a few of the pills and felt really horrible and guilty for doing it. It&amp;#x27;s funny, even at 16, I knew this went against everything I believed about healthy eating, self-esteem and weight loss. It felt a little shameful. And here&amp;#x27;s the thing: I was thin and fit (for the most part) and looked pretty great. It didn&amp;#x27;t take long for me to wise up and toss the bottle of diet pills. I&amp;#x27;ve never let anyone&amp;#x27;s comments about my weight or appearance drive me to that low place again. I think it&amp;#x27;s important to note that not all diet pills are bad (used under a doctor&amp;#x27;s care and advice, for example, they may even be helpful); and my story isn&amp;#x27;t meant to cast a dark shadow on them. But I think that the way I was using them as a teenager could have been dangerous, and I think the way a lot of people use them is dangerous. It&amp;#x27;s the type of thing that actress Natasha Henstridge is speaking out against. &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;ve done some things that probably weren&amp;#x27;t the smartest things in the world,&amp;quot; she said to People.com about taking diet &amp;quot;pills&amp;quot; and other supplements to keep her super-svelte. &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;ve even been to Chinese herbalists who&amp;#x27;ve given me herbs and acupuncture,&amp;quot; she says, thinking that they were &amp;quot;innocent and healthy.&amp;quot; The bottom line is that self-medicating can be dangerous. The government&amp;#x27;s new and scary warnings about Hydroxycut is a good example of why. If you&amp;#x27;re taking diet pills, tell your doctor about them. Just because you can buy them without a prescription, doesn&amp;#x27;t mean they&amp;#x27;re safe. Confession time: Have you ever taken diet pills? Are you taking them right now? Do they help? How do they make you feel? More from Vitamin G: *Could a raw food diet be the key to weight loss? *7 decades of wacky dieting trends... **** Get Glamour Wherever You Go! Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook Add us to your Google homepage Photo: iStock "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/06/this-star-says-she-damaged-her-1>