Lindsay Lohan admits drug use, bulimia battle

NEW YORK - Teen actress Lindsay Lohan, who was hospitalised in Miami this week suffering from asthma, said dabbling in drugs and battling bulimia pushed her close to emotional and physical collapse.

"I knew I had a problem and I couldn't admit it," Lohan, the star of movies such as Mean Girls and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, told Vanity Fair magazine.

"I was making myself sick. I was sick and I had people sit me down and say 'You're going to die if you don't take care of yourself,'" she said in the magazine's latest issue, which hit news-stands today.

Lohan said she used drugs "a little" but quickly tried to retract the admission and denied that she had taken cocaine. "I don't want people to think that I've done ... you know what I mean? It's kind of a sore subject," she said.

Lohan's publicist called Vanity Fair the day after the interview to try to get the confession omitted from the article, the New York Post reported.

In an apparent U-turn from what she said in interviews last year, the actress admitted fighting the eating disorder bulimia, which made her lose weight at an alarming rate.

It was when she saw footage of herself on a Saturday Night Live television appearance looking skeletal that Lohan became aware of how ill she really was.

"I saw that 'SNL' after I did it. My arms were disgusting. I had no arms," she said.

Her physical condition led to a two-week hospitalisation with a swollen liver and kidney infection last year.

Lohan was admitted to hospital on Monday after experiencing breathing difficulties in her hotel room in Miami, spokeswoman Leslie Sloane told Reuters.

Sloane said the actress, who has suffered from asthma since childhood, was "resting comfortably" while she remained under observation and expects to be discharged today.

- REUTERS