For six years, Alexa PenaVega silently struggled with bulimia.

But thanks to the confidence she found while competing on season 21 of Dancing with the Stars, the former Spy Kids star, 27, found the strength to go public with her story.

"The one thing that I had always wanted was for someone to be real with me about that whole situation," PenaVega told PEOPLE after Monday's show of her battle with bulimia, which started in childhood after she was told by a movie producer that she was too fat.

"You read textbooks and it's just so, well, textbook. 'This is how you get over bulimia.' But it is so much deeper than that," she continued. "I wish I'd had somebody who could have told me, 'It's scary.' You struggle giving it up. You want to get rid of it but you struggle because, in a strange way, you enjoy it."

Alexa shares her struggle with bulimia

Mark on how he was proud of Alexa for getting that off her chest

Alexa starts her performance

A clip from the middle of her performance

Alexa closing out her performance

Bruno says Alexa danced like a woman possessed

Alexa talks to Erin Andrews about her performance & turning her eating disorder into a positive

Backstreet Boys in the crowd?

Alexa gets perfect scores

Bindi looking up the wrong dance haha

Alexa is excited for their "Chicago" dance number

"KTV" -- Killing The Vibe Derek

Alexa and Bindi start their performance

Middle of the Chicago duet

Wrapping up the Chicago performance

Perfect score for this duet

Alexa and Carlos crying during the break together

The elimination...and Carlos comforting Alexa

I know I messed up a bit, but for the most part I felt really good about last week. I feel like the judges saw a different side of me.

I am really over messing up though. It's just embarrassing. The first couple of times I did it, it was just like, "I'll get it." But now I'm looking to really get to the root of why it keeps happening

My partner Mark Ballas has been giving me all the right tools in rehearsal, though, and we realized that I needed mental markers of where I am on the dance floor during each part of the dance because I often had no idea where I was physically because I am so focused on the specific steps. That has really helped, and I'm hoping for no more mess ups going forward.

We have week 8's DWTS caps, stills, and BTS photos in the gallery now!