A Clinicians’ Responsibility in Social Media

Clinicians, coaches and recovered people explain recovery work, spread knowledge and information and promote themselves on various social media platforms. The explosion of eating disorders treatment centers, normalization of these illnesses and isolation of the pandemic created space for many different voices in the eating disorder treatment world that everyone could access easily throughout the pandemic.

What’s confusing about all these new voices is the unfiltered nature of the noise. Social media algorithms attempt to keep you on the platform. There is no way to filter all the information to spread informed, knowledgeable or even true ideas.

Many people caught in the eating disorder web on social media find themselves trapped and often convinced of the ideas presented to them over and over again. If the message is about recovery and the harm of eating disorders then that’s great. If the message is about identifying fat phobia and body positivity then that’s important too. But it’s equally likely the message will be diet focused or even pro eating disorder. Without any way to filter out the destructive or false messages, the risks of developing an eating disorder or relapse only escalate.

These concerns are pervasive effects of social media in our current culture from politics to health to the pandemic. However, the increased incidence of eating disorders in the last year and a half shed light on how dangerous this messaging is and how clinicians need to be aware of the risks.

Treatment, in all different forms, needs to incorporate a strategy to include the concerns around social media. And clinicians using social media to promote themselves need to be careful how and in what way they are seen. The lines have blurred between treatment professionals, coaches, influencers and social media stars. As much as possible, clinicians need to try to distinguish what they do and why it’s different.

The best way to support recovery in this world is to remember that self-promotion can’t be the main goal. Any social media presence for a clinician can include links to their own practice and treatment goals but also needs to be sure to point people towards real, proven information about eating disorders, treatment and recovery.

No matter how much our online presence melds with advertising and personal brand, every clinician needs to remember that treatment and helping others is the top priority.