Christina Ricci was "lucky" to have found treatment for her anorexia early.

The stunning 31-year-old actress suffered from the eating disorder when she was a teenager.

Christina is happy that she sought help for the condition immediately.

"Well, I was lucky," Christina said on American daytime programme The Talk on Friday. "I only really suffered from it for about a year and a half. But I was put into therapy very quickly, so I was able to overcome it."

Christina attributes her bout with the disease to adolescent tension. The star simply did not feel comfortable in her body when she became pubescent.

"I think it's just really awkward to go through puberty, and go through growing up and becoming a woman, when everybody is always kind of looking at you," Christina explained. "And especially you're doing fittings for a movie, and people are judging how this looks on you and how that looks on you. And you just get very uncomfortable and you never want anyone to be able to criticise you."

Christina advises women who are troubled with anorexia to go seek treatment immediately.

"I would say that if you feel like you are starting to obsess too much about the way you look, then definitely get some kind of therapy or help very quickly," Christina said. "Because that can just grow into an obsession that you can't control."

Christina's newest film Bel Ami will be released in US theatres on March 2.