PLEASE HELP ME with Social Media, Eating Disorders and Body Image

Social Media, Eating Disorders and Body Image   

 I got a call from a Communications Professor at Cleveland State University yesterday, asking if he can interview me for a professional article he is writing about social media.  This is most interesting to me because I am the most illiterate social media user I know! I guess he thinks I know something, since I am an eating disorders therapist.

Anyway, this Professor is an expert in the field of persuasion, and he was contacted by a professional journal to write an article about social media and its impact on eating disorders and body image.  In the article, he wants to include a clinician's perspective.  So it makes sense for me to go to my audience asking you to comment on social media's impact on your disease.

I would very much appreciate it if you would ponder the following questions and send me a reply:

PLEASE DO NOT LIST PRO-ANA/PRO-MIA SITES OR BEHAVIORS LEARNED, AS THAT COULD BE TRIGGERING FOR OTHER READERS. 

1. What sorts of social media sites have you been to?  Sites that teach and encourage eating disorders?  Sites that promote recovery?  What did/do you like about these sorts of forums?

2. How do social media sites make you feel?  What sort of emotions do various sites evoke?

3. What kept/keeps you going back?

4. Have you posted on these sites and communicated with other users?  How has that been helpful/not helpful?

6. Have you posted on your own and others, social media sites, about your own eating and body image struggles?  In a healthy or unhealthy way?

7. Please read my previous blog about shame and comment on how social media contributes to it.

5. Please estimate how much time each day or week you spend/have spent on social media sites that trigger eating disorder behaviors and BBT’s (Bad Body Thoughts).  How” addicted” to  social media are you? 

I am not sure if these are the best questions, I write them to get you thinking.  Your reply can be anything you think would be helpful to the article.

I thank you in advance. 

And BTW, I am meeting with this Prof. next Thursday, so please don’t delay. 

Thank you 

Ann Hull, LISW
President, The Hull Institute, LLC

Thinking About Shame

I do a lot of thinking about SHAME.  I no longer live in my own shame (I did for a very long time), yet I think about how so many of my clients live in theirs.  Whether the shame comes from abuse, hating your body, shameful events of long ago or yesterday, SHAME is often debilitating.  

Currently, my favorite author, Brene Brown, researches and writes about shame.  Most of her work is with women, though she has a CD and book about men, women and shame.  No one is immune from shame. We all have it, and no one likes to talk about it.  Shame begets shame because shame is about secrets; secrets we are afraid to tell because we might feel more shame for telling. 

It is common to confuse the terms GUILT and SHAME.  

GUILT is “I did something bad.”  

SHAME is “ I AM BAD.”  

It is the shame that leads to addiction and eating disorders, along with depression and anxiety and you-name-it conditions.  And the way OUT of these conditions is NOT the way we get into them.  The way out is by following directions.  (If you continue reading blogs, you will read a lot about following directions!)  The way out is to stop following the directions of our addict or ED voice and start listening to people who have what you want.  

Especially in the early stages of recovery, following the directions of any voice that contradicts the negative self-talk and craving is critical.  This is obviously very scary, because “What if I can’t do it?”  And I say, “What if you can?”

In the medical world, eating disorder and addictions recovery is about stopping behaviors.  Once you do that, you can work on shame recovery.  Shame recovery is about: recognizing your shame, being aware of when you are in it, asking for help, talking about it, having faith that you can move through it and stop living in it.  It requires courage and compassion, and in the beginning, faking it ‘til you make it.  I hope you’ll check out Brene Brown online or in the bookstore, then talk with your therapist or another trusted person in your life about it. As always, we welcome your comments.