It’s already been a month since journalist Saman Javed approached the charity I was working with to ask about disordered eating and Tiktok for Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2021 – this year is really flying by for me!

You can read the article here – Eating Disorder Awareness Week: The Dangers Of TikTok’s ‘What I Eat In A Day’ Videos – but obviously not everything Saman and I spoke about was able to be posted in one article – (partly because I am pretty verbose when I get passionate), so I thought I’d include my full responses here (from 4th March 2021) –

SJ: Has (ED Charity) seen any connection between the growing popularity of TikTok in the last year and the number of people suffering with eating disorders?

SR: The last year has certainly seen a sharp increase in disordered eating behaviours (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/16/shape-rise-in-number-of-children-in-england-seeking-help-for-eating-disorders , with BEAT reporting a 97% increase in contacts for support compared to the same period in 2019, there’s lots of different factors at play here, not least of all a global pandemic and year of uncertainty, isolation and fear, where a lot of younger people have had their lives disrupted by changes in schooling, university, or being subject to furlough and job losses  – however, as cited by https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7300468/  (Rodgers et al 2020), one of the exacerbating factors is media effects. Fatphobia is not hard to stumble across on TikTok, whether subtle or extremely overt, under the guise of “well meaning (but often over simplified or simply incorrect) health advice” or actively shaming people for eating at all. Especially in this time where real-life interaction is, necessarily, for public safety and the preservation of the NHS, at an all time low, people are increasingly relying on social media for entertainment and human contact, and to be confronted by such distressing messages, along with disturbing rhetoric from the government around weight (https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/news/anti-obesity-proposals-slammed ), can create an environment where restriction, bingeing or purging behaviours can emerge and start to take hold.  

SJ: Do you think social media platforms are doing enough to monitor content which could be triggering for those recovering or create disordered eating habits?

SR: I personally do not. Part of our ongoing work with disordered eating and eating distress is to be aware of what is happening in the fight against disordered eating and weight stigma, which includes on social media, and both anecdotally amongst the body inclusive influencers and content creators I am personally aware of, and in the wider community, there are widespread reports of more inclusive content being removed from Tiktok and driving people who don’t meet the “Tiktok Standards off the platform altogether – https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/tiktok-censorship-abnormal-body-shapes  – https://qz.com/1969252/does-tiktok-have-a-problem-with-black-womens-bodies/ , all the while seemingly encouraging dangerous trends, diets and ways of body-checking that I don’t even want to name for fear of giving them more publicity. Instagram has made some steps towards removing pro-ana/ED content, such as regulation of some more overt promotion of “skinny” (i.e. laxative) teas, however Tiktok seems to be lagging very far behind in responsibility to its increasingly younger users. 

SJ: At the end of 2020 TikTok said it would be investigating and banning certain search terms after harmful pro-anorexia content was found on the platform – has the platform been working with (ED Charity) around this at all?

SR: We’re a small local charity based in the North East of England, so it would be unlikely for us to hear from them, heh, but I am aware of the criticism they have faced and that BEAT have made statements asking them to take responsibility. A search for “pro ana” on Tik tok now brings back only the BEAT helpline, but I searched just the letters “ED” and on the front page, the algorithm chose among the top 2 search results a tiktok which features many lingering shots of the body of a person who seems to be dangerously underweight, and I would say the first several seconds could not be reasonably distinguished from pro-ana material. There is also no option to report something as promoting or certainly publicising dangerous disordered eating – only suicide, self harm, and “dangerous acts” or “other”. 

SJ: What is (ED Charity)’s view on the trend of ‘What I Eat In A Day’ videos, especially when those videos contain calorie counts, people eating in calorie ‘deficits’ and people avoiding certain food groups.

SR: I believe that as well as perpetuating the misguided idea that people should eat the same things or amount of calories each day, it brings another dangerous level of competitiveness to the fore – something already found in restrictive eating disorders. Every human has different needs, that are dependent on so many different things, not least tiredness, stress and genetics. Giving firm numbers such as calorie counts to aim for often seeps into the mind as a “fact” or a “target” – we crave certainty in an uncertain world! Carbs and fats are often demonised in these sorts of videos – both of which are essential for your body and brain to work properly. Calorie restriction often leads to changes in personality, behaviour and thought patterns, and can lead to obsessive thoughts around food – leading people to believe their appetite is somehow unusual, when in fact, their body is fighting to keep them alive – for more info on the effects of restriction on the body and mood – https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/-/media/CCI/Mental-Health-Professionals/Eating-Disorders/Eating-Disorders—Information-Sheets/Eating-Disorders-Information-Sheet—34—What-is-Starvation-Syndrome.pdf 

SJ: What advice would you give to people using TikTok and seeing these videos?

Please don’t! Although, obviously I know it’s not as simple as that. But the first defence against unhelpful and triggering content is to protect yourself against it when you can – block, mute, scroll past. Your social media is your space, and it’s okay to curate it, to stop engaging with things that make you feel unhappy and worth less. 

If you’re not able to do this, something you can try when you find yourself applying these unrealistic and dangerous standards to your day to day life and habits is – “Would I want my friend/younger sibling/partner to follow this advice/standard, and live like this?”. Reframing your expectations of yourself versus what you would want another person to do can be really helpful – it can bring into focus that you would probably never want another person to force themselves to ignore their hunger, or shame themselves for their body – and your life and happiness are worth just as much as theirs are, I promise.