By Hasreen Syazana
Social media offers an exciting experience of getting to know and staying in touch with people. Some even use it to gain new information, conduct businesses and find social support.
It is reported that 81% of Malaysians use social media in January 2020. With a high social media penetration rate, it is important to take into consideration how a person uses it.
There is a community in social media platforms joined by those who are struggling with eating disorders and self-harm (with and without suicidal intent). Those who joined this group could easily relate to their struggles and talk about them without being judged by the stigma that they faced in real life.
Particularly with a community on eating disorders, there are factions between people who joined the community simply to find people who are in the same boat and those who are encouraging unhealthy habits to achieve their weight goal.
This is worrying as encouraging it could disrupt the recovery process, influence those who are already vulnerable to the disorder and could trigger a relapse. For example, there are multiple groupchats being formed to encourage each other to achieve their weight goal.
Moreover, some introduce themselves in the community with their basic information such as name (may not be a real name), age, gender, and even location. As the onset of eating disorders and self-harm are those who are in their adolescence and early adulthood phase, it poses a threat for the minors being lurked by such predators online.
However, some do intend to join the community to recover as they seek social support online. This is because some of the contents in the community are funny (filled with memes), reassuring and encouraging the recovery process, and seem to provide the support they would not receive in real life.
The community expresses annoyance whenever those who are not struggling with eating disorders join the community mainly to lose weight as it trivialises the struggles members in the community are facing. These communities also face trolls that trigger them and disrupt the safe space that they established amongst them.
Different people look into the perspective of the communities in a different light. Social media usage is inevitable in the age of the internet but using it too much can pose a serious problem. Therefore, there is the need for education on safe internet usage. Also, as children grow up into teenagers, parents should be encouraged to support and help the transition phase of their kids as it could be stressful for them to handle. If children are exhibiting symptoms of eating disorders and self-harm, measures should be taken for them to get diagnosed and treated by mental health professionals.
To seek help, parents should make an appointment with a general practitioner (GP) to get a referral letter before making an appointment with a psychiatrist at a local hospital with a psychiatry clinic.***
(The writer, Hasreen Syazana, is a third-year Psychology student, IIUM)