You too have noticed it and many of you have told us about your experiences: clothes are increasingly skimpy. Over the past few weeks, we at FqMagazine we have analyzed the phenomenon, trying to explain why this happens and how it is possible that the sizes shown on the clothes tags refer to measurements that are now increasingly arbitrary. In fact, brands establish how many centimeters to assign to each garment based on precise marketing strategies, a dangerous game that has serious effects on the psychein particular of adolescents, in which it can also induce pathologies such as eating disorders, self-harm and depression. A crucial role in this system is played by social networks, Instagram and TikTok in the first place, where young people not only absorb aesthetic models and canons, but are also powerfully influenced by the contents that the algorithm incessantly offers them. The problematic use of these platforms can be considered, in fact, a risk and precipitating factor of the eating disorder, in a delicate phase such as the adolescent transition. For this reason we have decided to dedicate a focus precisely to the relationship between social networks and eating disorders, doing, with the help of Dr. Francesca Farinapsychologist and psychotherapist expert in Eating behavior disorders, the point of the situation; and then collecting the testimony of the doctor Margherita Magni, psychotherapist and clinical director of Erika Associazione for the fight against eating disorders ODV, founded in 2000 by a group of parents of patients who suffered from an eating disorder. The Association works in synergy with the Complex Structure of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition of the Great Metropolitan Hospital of Niguarda and supports parents and patients in the therapeutic path.
THE RISKS OF SOCIAL MEDIA – “Our clinical experience suggests that problematic use occurs primarily through access to sites that promote incorrect and harmful eating behaviors, spreading false information and advice that contribute to de facto supporting the eating disorder”, explains Dr. Magni. But that’s not all: the girls and parents who contact the Association come from all over Italy, mainly Milan and the hinterland. “Very often the girls tell us about repeated accesses to the social profiles of famous people or peers in order to compare sizes, shapes and body dimensions – the contact person of the Association tells us -. In this regard, recent research suggests that social media that mainly offer images (at the expense of verbal content) are particularly implicated as risk factors in the development of eating disorders. There are numerous testimonies of girls who use social media as a means of comparing themselves with peers with a negative impact on evolving self-esteem”.
On the other hand, just take a look at the numbers TikTok to realize how half of its 800 million users are young between 16 and 24 years old: “We know that social media tend to influence more and more the choices of children”, confirms Dr. Farina. “Digital consumption is born today within the family, the child is never alone and digital connects him with the world immediately regardless of the real body. Ever since we were children there is no boundary between what is private and what is public, any experience finds its own particular meaning when communicated. It is therefore important that social media actors acquire more and more awareness of their responsibility since they influence those who follow them as if they were in the here and now”, underlines the psychologist and psychotherapist. “However, I believe that it would be simplistic to consider social media itself or those who live there as the problemto. A fundamental aspect today is that even the adults of reference feel more and more competent and therefore legitimize themselves to ask, to be interested in virtual life which today is as much if not more real than real life”. For this reason, the doctor comments, “it is not so much essential to simply limit the virtual experience as to create alternatives, develop a critical sense and help transform crises into opportunities”.
THE EFFECTS OF MODELS IMPOSED BY VIPS AND INFLUENCERS – “A theme that unites the eating disorder is that linked to the fact that the mind must have control over the body, if we add to this performance experiences up to the myth of perfection, we can observe how food can become a tool to achieve one’s goals”, analyzes Dr. Farina, framing the phenomenon. “We often meet perfect former children, for them the pubertal transformation can really become a problem and the weight is the only element they can control. So it certainly becomes important observe what are the ideals of perfection that are proposed at a cultural level and then mediated by social media in the everyday life of the kids. The strong risk is that the comparison with the proposed models amplifies the feeling of not being up to par. This can lead to the idea of ​​hiding or overexposing your body. They have an extreme need for each other and often depend on each other’s gaze”, notes Farina.
All this is found daily in the “field” experience of the Erika Association: “Among the risk and precipitating factors of an eating disorder are, in a condition of low self-esteem, the use of diets, social pressures and the emulation of external patterns of thinness and perfectionism. Often girls who suffer from an eating disorder tend to focus on one detail when they look in the mirror of one’s body, losing sight of the overall gaze on one’s image and on one’s person as a whole. This modality makes their relationship with the mirror very difficult,” reports Dr. Magni. “The girls we meet they tell us about frequent and often long accesses to social networks in which the attention is drawn to compare their body shapes with those of their peers or famous peoplethrough photos and videos. We know that making the body an object through images is related in the literature to a worse perception of one’s body image and is a factor favoring the distortion of the body image especially since the comparisons are often focused on restricted parts of one’s body”. This is why the Erika Association has been undertaking for two years, in collaboration with Ri-scatti Onlus a photography project, a laboratory aimed at patients being treated at the Niguarda Center for the Treatment of Eating Disorders: “In this way, girls are informed and urged to think actively about how the internet and social networks work. They are shown how many photographs can be modified/retouched by altering their meaning and authenticity and they are guided in rediscovering the meaning of a photograph that is no longer just self-observational but relational and representative of thoughts, concepts and emotions”, tells us the operator Simona Galli.
WHAT ARE DCA AND HOW TO RECOGNIZE THEM – “What was a rare syndrome up to a few decades ago has now changed a lot in both shape and size. Many factors have contributed to modifying the characteristics of the eating disorder, many are the same ones that are modifying the very conception of adolescence”, analyzes Dr. Farina. “Eating dysfunction can be a temporary problem whose meaning varies according to its characteristics and the moment in which it occurs. However, when it assumes a stable trait over time and is associated with a modification of general functioning (social, scholastic, family) it is possible that it is defined as a real eating disorder”. The most popular Eating Disorders (ED) are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (BED): the incidence of anorexia nervosa is estimated to be at least 8 new cases per 100,000 women in a year, while that of bulimia nervosa is at least 12 new cases per 100,000 women in one year. “In Italy, both for anorexia and for bulimia nervosa, the age range for onset is 15-19 years, with a trend in recent years towards increasingly precocious onset which can be associated with a high risk of permanent – ​​underlines the doctor -, especially because the tissues that have not yet reached full maturity, such as bones and the central nervous system”. In approximately 80% of cases, recovery is stable with or without subthreshold residual symptoms. In the remaining percentage of cases, a progression of the disorder can take place which leads to a picture of reduced relational, scholastic and occupational functioning as well as the frequent persistence of psychic disorders (for example of an anxious and depressive type).
A problem that has been further amplified by the covid pandemic and by the unprecedented measures to contain the virus: “More and more young people have begun to implement dysfunctional eating habits often without the parents being able to intercept the discomfort before it became a symptom of a more serious problem“. Requests for first contacts at specialist services for eating disorders have increased, as documented by theHigher Institute of Health, with an extension of the waiting lists: for this reason the Erika Association has activated the Terra di Mezzo project since 2021 to support the families of patients on the waiting list for hospitalization in the Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition department of the Niguarda Hospital. “We know in fact how difficult the condition of being on the waiting list is for parents and for the family as a whole, with feelings of impotence and anguish”, underlines Dr. Magni.
THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS AND PARENTS – Family and school, if informed, can play an active and key role in the early identification of the signs of an eating disorder and for an early taking charge: the A knows it wellErika association, which in the two-year period 2000-2022 involved more than 200 parents in its psychoeducational groups. “The involvement of the family in the treatment of eating disorders in adolescents or young adults is fundamental – the clinical manager of the Association tells us -. The family is important in promoting access to and continuity of care for adolescents with an eating problem and also has a role in the maintenance/remission of eating symptoms”. And Dr. Farina adds: “Taking care of eating disorders in very young people today he cannot do without taking care of the transformation that kids experience when they stop being children. It becomes important for parents to pay attention to the tools that children have to cope with changes, unexpected events, fashions but also with failures or in any case with imperfection”.
The school environment is also crucial: “We think that the approach to eating disorders must necessarily be multidisciplinary, involving specialist centers but also involving various actors both in public health and in the sports and above all scholastic sectors“, Dr. Magni tells us again. “In fact, in addition to allowing young people to integrate and socialize, school can also play a central role in recognizing the first signs of an eating disorder. It is important that parents and teachers are able to recognize the early signs of an eating disorder and can refer within the school to a school psychologist who can direct the parents and the adolescent to a specialist center in the area. In fact, we know that the sooner treatment is accessed, the better the prognosis will be, in terms of the lesser probability that those biological, cognitive and relational factors will develop that tend to make the disorder difficult to change”.