Have you watched the news and media idolizing thinspiration (i.e., people who are excessively thin) and fitspiration (i.e., people excessively fit)?  How does exposure to thinspiration and fitspiration affect symptom severity within high-risk clinical populations?

Australian researchers had over 200 people, mostly women, who self-reported having eating disorders (47% reported anorexia—excessive thinness) complete questionnaires on media use, exposure to media idolizing fitness and thinness, and having symptoms of eating disorders.  

Results? the more time the participants viewed social media posts with lean and fit individuals, the more frequently they compared themselves with social media posts and the greater symptom severity they had.  When participants looked at social media images, they were more motivated to seek and maintain a very low body weight.  Even though participants were more exposed to fitspiration, those with more thinspiration exposure experienced greater symptom severity.  

Don’t mindlessly scroll through social media and treat images you see as normal or ideal.  Examine what thoughts come up when viewing social medias. Keep in mind, how you can be manipulated.  Instead, focus on what you think is important. Value your own work and play goals. 

Written by Krishna Patel B.S.

Reference: 

Griffiths, S., Castle, D., Cunningham, M., Murray, S.B., Bastian, B., Barlow F.K. (2018). How does exposure to thinspiration and fitspiration relate to symptom severity among individuals with eating disorders? Evaluation of a proposed model. Body Image, 27, 187-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.10.002