CLOSER NEWS REPORT
This Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Closer asks what’s behind the recent alarming statistics and speaks to one teen about her experiences…
Grace Roy was just 14 when her anorexia took hold – and pandemic restrictions allowed her to hide her disorder. Wanting to lose weight, Grace, now 18, started to make changes, telling her friends and family that she was on a health kick.
But when she didn’t see results quick enough, she began over-exercising and purging her food. Grace, from Goosnargh, Lancashire, says, “That’s when my health really started being on the line. At school I’d skip going to the canteen, throw my packed lunch away or say I’d already eaten. Then the pandemic hit, which allowed me to hide my disorder even more. I was able to exercise easily as online workouts were encouraged. Before I knew it, anorexia had taken hold.”
INCREASE
Unfortunately, Grace is far from alone. In November, a report on the mental health of children and young people in England revealed shocking increases in the number suffering from eating disorders – a terrifying 20 per cent of older teenage girls – one in five – now suffer.
Latest figures from the eating disorder charity Beat also bear out this steep rise. Between April 2019 and March 2020, the organisation had over 600 helpline contacts from or about under-18s. Between April 2023 and 1 February this year, they’d already received over 1,600 from or about under-18s – a 167 per cent increase.
While experts note that there is seldom a single trigger for an eating disorder, many point to both the pandemic and social media use as potential factors behind the rise.
“It can be a combination of genetic, social and environmental factors,” Umairah Malik, Clinical Advice Co-ordinator at Beat, tells Closer. “And lockdowns triggered isolation, disruption of routines, changes to school, social and home lives.
SAFETY
“And while there’s nothing to say social media in itself can cause an eating disorder, it might contribute to one developing in someone who’s already vulnerable, or mean the worsening of symptoms for someone in the early stages.”
The Online Safety Act 2023 is now in its final stages before passing into UK law. The act states that tech companies running social networking sites or search engines must promote online safety by tackling illegal material and content that is harmful to children, conducting regular risk assessments and properly enforcing age limits.
And in January, Meta, owners of Facebook and Instagram, announced policy changes aimed at removing posts by users struggling with eating disorders as well as self-harm or suicidal thoughts from teenagers’ feeds.
But experts sa
