Almost two years after Tracey left Growing Pains, she was reduced to a walking skeleton. She came to regard food as poison and was rapidly wasting away toward death.
But, now she's back on top of the world, thanks to her fiance, movie production assistant Roby Marshall. He told her he wouldn't marry her until Tracey had beaten her disease and was able to eat a piece of cake at their wedding.
"I worked so very hard towards that personal victory," says Traey, now on the road to recovery and looking forward to her wedding next October.
Tracey's freinds and family watched in horror as her weight plunged from a healthy 133 pounds to less than 90.
Her mother blames herself for contributing to the onset of her daughter's disease and not spotting it sooner. By the time Bonnie Gold saw her daughter's wasted body, Tracey was already on the road to ruin.
"I was unaware of just how emaciated she'd become," says her mom. "When I saw her in her dressing room one day changing clothes, I was shocked."
Tracey usually only ate two meals a day - often just a couple of cups of cereal. If she was shaned into eating something more, she threw up or took laxatives.
"I would lie about it," she says. "If someone asked if I threw up taht day, I'd say:'No.' if they asked if I'd eaten, I'd say: 'Of course I've eaten.'"
Now, as Tracey looks back on her ordeal, she realizes her anorexia was really a misguided atttempt to get control of her life.
Says her spokesman: "She feels great! And she's looking forward to getting back on the screen soon."