I wouldn’t say Instagram was the cause of my daughter’s anorexia but it provided a constant bombardment of tips and tricks to reduce calories and hide the extent of her illness from friends and family, as well as providing unrealistic body images. Anorexia can be a competitive illness so contact with other people/images with/portraying eating disorders can be especially damaging even if portrayed as ‘supportive’ or for ‘recovery’. The charity BEAT would provide plenty of data on this. Anorexia Nervosa is the most deadly of all mental illnesses (10% within 5 years, 20% within 20 years).
My daughter is 3 years into her illness and it is a constant battle to undo the damage that social media does. At the moment I don’t feel like we’re winning.
