Jessie Buckley says acting helped her overcome eating disorder as a teenager

Oscar-frontrunner Jessie Buckley has said acting is "like water to me" as she spoke about how passion for her craft helped her overcome an eating disorder and depression as a teenager.

The Irish actress, 36, has received a string of awards for her performance as William Shakespeare's wife Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet and is in the running for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Buckley, from Killarney, County Kerry, but now living in Norfolk, told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs acting was "essential" to her, as she credited it with helping her mental health.

Buckley, who is also a Mercury Music Prize-nominated singer, told presenter Lauren Laverne she did not regret her struggles.

"I didn't know how to be alive the way I wanted to be, and it was difficult," she said. "But I do not for a second regret it, and I think I've been able to transform it and recognise our vulnerabilities as humans in the world.

"You can't walk through life not being affected, but you can transform that into something that allows you to be more human and alive in the way that you want to be."

She said when she moved to London she "still wasn't out of the woods".

"There were moments where I was like, 'if I don't get better here, this music, this being part of theatre - I'm not going to be able to do this any more, and I probably won't survive'," she said.

"And that was the thing that turned it in my head. I was like, 'I don't want to sacrifice that, this is bigger than that', and won."

Buckley has already collected a Golden Globe and a Bafta, among other awards, for her performance in Hamnet - based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel of the same name.

She told Laverne that the first time she performed on stage: "It was like drinking water, you know? I just think, the more I did it, the more I realised, this is essential to me."

Buckley rose to fame on I'd Do Anything, a talent show seeking an actress to play Nancy in a West End production of Oliver!.

She gave an interview to British Vogue in January talking about how she was criticised for her appearance.

"I don't like that part of it," she told Laverne. "I think that was a young woman who's trying to discover her body and herself, like we all do. And I wish that hadn't happened.

"I was putting a brave face on, because really what I wanted to do was sing and I wanted to act, and I wanted to be part of this industry, and all of a sudden you had to be a certain kind of person.

"And I just wasn't, I never will be. That's just not me."

Buckley sounded emotional as she chose a rendition of her mother, Marina, singing O Holy Night in church as her first track.

"My parents are no longer together, and she lives in Dublin, and she's writing her own story right now at 60 years of age," Buckley said, "and I'm so proud of her."

You can listen to Jessie Buckley's full Desert Island Disc episode from 10:00 on BBC Radio 4 or find the programme here.