Michelle Duggar Opens Up About Bulimia Struggles in New '19 Kids and Couting' Episode

Michelle Duggar, matriarch of the Duggar family on TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," is set to discuss her struggle with bulimia as a teenager in Tuesday's airing of "19 Kids and Counting." 

On the most recent episode of the "19 Kids and Counting" reality show, set to air Tuesday evening, Duggar reveals that she struggled with the eating disorder in her teenage years because she felt she had to "measure up" to her friends.

"Before I came to know the Lord, I had been struggling in my self worth, just feeling like I needed to measure up to all my friends," the 48-year-old says in a clip for the upcoming episode, released by TLC in advance. "I began to have a wrong view of who I was, I gained weight so easily."

"I ended up starting a bad habit of making myself get sick after I ate," she continues. "As I was in that process, no one knew."

Duggar's eating struggles have been revealed before, when her daughters, Jinger, Jessa, Jill and Jana revealed their mother's fight with bulimia in their book "Growing Up Duggar," released in 2014.

The mother of 19 adds in the recent clip that she has learned to balance healthy eating habits and exercise to avoid a negative relationship with her body and the food she eats.

"I think all girls struggle with the same body issues," she says in the clip. "The struggle is always going to be there."

"Life's too short to never have a chocolate chip cookie," she says. "But you have to be wise in doing that."