Could Stopping the Scrolling Help with Eating Disorder Behaviors?

Almost ⅔ of teenagers report daily social media use, and ⅓ report using social media “almost constantly.” Additionally, social media use is a risk factor for mental health problems with more than 3 hours of daily use doubling the risk for mental health problems in adolescents. However, though social media can play a positive role in eating disorder recovery, it can also negatively influence eating behaviors.

Social Media and Eating Disorders: Comparison Culture

Following fitness, health, and wellness influencers on social media may seem harmless, but their posts often lead to negative self-comparison. This comparison trap can result in low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. A 2017 study found that that Instagram use among women aged 18-25 increased concerns about appearance and body image. Similarly, a 2018 study on sexual minority men found that higher social media use, especially on image-centric platforms like Instagram and TikTok, was associated with greater body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms. These findings show that the impact of social media extends beyond gender and demographics. Therefore, it’s essential to recognize how social media affects mental health and eating behaviors by promoting unattainable beauty standards and comparisons.

The Connection Between Social Media and Eating Disorders: Harmful Comparisons

Viewing curated photos of meals, small portions, and carb-free plates on social media often leads to questioning personal dietary habits.However, in reality, the content creator may have an unhealthy relationship with food. Additionally, workout routine and #nodaysoff posts often trigger unhealthy comparisons. These influencers may be struggling with obsessive exercise habits, leading to physical and mental health issues from undereating and overexercising.

We have to remember that social media is often just a “highlight reel” of someone’s life. You’re likely only seeing the “good” or even fake clips that one is curating to gain more followers and likes.   

Reinforcing Unrealistic Beauty Standards 

Mirror selfies, “before and after” photos, and angled body shots put pressure on individuals to conform to unrealistic beauty standards. However, these influencers often live unrealistic lifestyles and have access to resources, such as personal chefs and fitness trainers, expensive beauty products, plastic surgery, and more time than the average person to spend on wellness routines. As a result, their curated content sets false expectations. 

The Negative Impact of Social Media on Body Appreciation and Self-Esteem

A 2022 study found an association between browsing through the looks of others on social media and lower levels of body appreciation and concluded that browsing through influencers’ Instagram profiles with the intention of aligning towards beauty ideals is associated with detrimental outcomes. As such, it highlights the negative impact of social media on self-esteem and body image.

These beauty standards perpetuated on social media are harmful to our psychological health and well-being, including the development of body image concerns, eating disorders, disordered eating and poor mental health, through the vehicles of thin and fit ideal internalization, self-objectification, and social comparison. 

Additionally, it’s also important to note that images are often “polished,” as influencers utilize editing, retouching, and “facetuning” applications to create images of their physical appearance that don’t even exist. As a result, this makes content showing extreme thinness or unattainable fitness levels seem normal and desirable.

Social Media and Eating Disorders: Encouraging Disordered Eating

“What I eat in a day,” “girl dinner,” and “morning routine” content often encourages disordered eating habits, and when these posts consume your feed, disordered behaviors begin to be normalized and cause negative self-comparison. For instance, a study done on University of Rhode Island college students reported that 50% of study participants change their diets based on a social media post, and 48% feel judged or criticized for their food choices because of social media. Additionally, this social media content, often created by unqualified influencers, frequently promotes disordered behaviors. Viewing nutrition and exercise content on Twitter and Instagram is associated with disordered eating, and 49% of Instagram users who follow health-food accounts show symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Further fueling the fire, much of the nutrition content on social media spreads misinformation. It can be hard to identify credible versus non-credible information, but looking at the creator’s credentials and cited research is a good first step.

Additionally, it is also worth mentioning that those who under-eat often become preoccupied with incessant thoughts about food, leading to scrolling through food and recipe content and cooking for others but not actually eating the food.

Social Media and Eating Disorders: How to Protect Your Recovery

Curate A Recovery-Aligned Social Media Feed 

Unfollow accounts that are triggering, make you feel bad, or are negatively impacting your recovery. If it’s a close friend or family member, you can choose to instead “mute” the account. In addition, it can be helpful to follow recovery-focused accounts and accounts that discuss Health at Every Size, intuitive eating, and body acceptance. BALANCE’s Instagram page is here, and you can follow support networks and communities (e.g., @projectheal@anadhelp), mental health resources (e.g. @alliancefored), clinicians who specialize in eating disorders, and positive role models who are advocates for diverse bodies. Eating disorder recovery-focused pages often debunk harmful trends and misinformation and offer educational resources and how to seek help.

Take A Social Media Break

Try taking a day or week off from social media and see how it feels. You can implement a “1 day/week off of social media” policy for yourself to fully unplug. You can also set limits on the time you spend on your social media accounts.

Connect With Others

Join an online recovery support group where you can connect with others going through the same thing. Additionally, you can learn from others, feel less alone, and gain strength in knowing you have a group of people who understand where you’re coming from. Furthermore, BALANCE offers two free virtual support groups each month. You can find information about our upcoming groups here

Filter Your Feed

There are now settings on most social media platforms where you can opt out of seeing content related to weight control or dieting. For example, on Instagram you can:

  1. Go to settings 
  2. Select “ad preferences”
  3. Select “see all” next to ad topics 
  4. Select “view and manage topics”
  5. Select “see less” for topics related to dieting, weight control, etc. 

Social media is not all to blame, and it’s not all bad. However, we need to take a step back and evaluate whether our feed is playing more of a positive or negative role in our recovery.

You can go to our YouTube page to watch our Fact Check Your Feed: Debunking Diet Misinformation Webinar to learn why trusting your favorite influencers’ diet advice may not be helping you, spot common nutrition myths with research-backed evidence, identify diet misinformation red flags, help your loved one or client think critically when using social media, and more.

                                                           

This post was written by Dietetic Intern Sarah Kerrigan (she/her).

Sarah Kerrigan is a dietetic intern at BALANCE from Boston, Massachusetts. She has her masters in Nutrition Interventions, Communications, and Behavior Change from Tufts University and plans to become a registered dietitian after completing her dietetic internship program at Hunter College. She has previously worked in nutrition research and for a private practice dietitian who works with endurance athletes. Sarah loves being active outside, whether that be running, swimming at the beach, skiing, boating, or hiking, spending time with friends & family, and finding new coffee shops. Sarah is excited to be an intern at BALANCE and learn more about the treatment and impact of eating disorders.

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