How Social Media can Trigger Eating Disorders

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CLEVELAND - If you scroll through social media, you’re bound to come across a video of an influencer talking about what they eat to ‘stay skinny.’ 

While that may seem harmless, it can trigger some people to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. 

“Social media exposure leads to body dissatisfaction, which in turn increases risk for eating disorders,” explained Kasey Goodpaster, PhD, psychologist at Cleveland Clinic. “Several studies have found a significant association between social media use and lots of different types of disordered eating patterns including binge eating, purging, severe restriction, and orthorexia, which is this pathological fixation on clean or healthy eating.”

Dr. Goodpaster said women tend to be more vulnerable to comparing themselves on social media and to developing eating disorders. 

That could be due to a couple of reasons, one of them being that women generally internalize thin ideals, while men internalize muscular ideals. 

She adds that women also spend more time on social media, which means more time comparing themselves and viewing potentially harmful content. 

So, what can be done to help stop that? 

“One action item is to try to spend less time on social media but also what accounts we follow are going to affect what we come to view as normal. So, trying to do what we can to change that algorithm by unfollowing accounts that tend to make people feel bad about their bodies, or encourage these disordered eating behaviors, or quickly scrolling past when that kind of content comes up. But meanwhile, following other accounts that are more body positive,” she said. 

Dr. Goodpaster said some signs a person may have an eating disorder include being overly restrictive with food, constantly exercising, negative body comments, and weighing themselves multiple times a day.