The Effect of Social Media Exposure in Eating Disorder Treatment

Social media has changed eating disorder diagnosis and recovery greatly in recent years. Long before seeking help, most people these days are aware of their eating disorder, have read, listened to or watched media that explained not only the disorders but various symptoms and the path of recovery. Thus, education about eating disorders is now largely delegated to online platforms so therapists can both clarify what people learn online and individualize treatment for each person.

Patients used to start treatment often more confused about the diagnosis and without much knowledge of treatment. Now any clinician in this field must assume a new patient is aware of diagnoses and has a lot of information at their finger tips. And since social media posts about eating disorders are very specific about thoughts and symptoms, people are often aware of subtle and specific elements of their disorder.

Treatment needs to incorporate this added knowledge into the therapy relationship and also to respect the vantage point of all patients seeking help. They enter the relationship with a lot of exposure matched with the personal knowledge of their own eating disorder. In fact, their experience needs to dictate treatment much more than ever before.

A therapist can tailor the information the patient has and use their own experience to guide therapy while simultaneously recognizing that this person’s knowledge must play a vital role going forward.

In many ways, this new entry point into eating disorder treatment is preferable. It levels the playing field. The therapy is immediately a partnership—a crucial element of most successful recovery.

There are a few caveats. Not all information online is true, but that can be easily discussed. Younger people and adolescents may need more guidance to assimilate the social media exposure into effective therapy. More information to assuage fears of what treatment looks like will be useful to counter the recovery stories with more difficult outcomes.

Ultimately, the therapist needs to respect the knowledge, exposure and introspection that precedes starting treatment. The effect of the availability of information about eating disorder can and should improve treatment and outcomes.