Please note that this is an Archived article and may contain content that is out of date. The use of she/her/hers pronouns in some articles is not intended to be exclusionary. Eating disorders can affect people of all genders, ages, races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, body shapes, and weights.

By Quinn Nystrom, M.S.

There are moments when I catch myself scrolling without even realizing how long I’ve been doing it. A few minutes between meetings. Sitting in the carpool line. Late at night when the house is finally quiet.

At first, it feels harmless, even comforting. Social media helps me stay connected to friends and family during a busy season of life filled with work, motherhood, marriage, and advocacy. It lets me celebrate milestones, laugh at parenting moments, and feel less alone in a very full life.

But sometimes, without warning, scrolling turns into something else.

It turns into comparing. And comparing starts to hurt.

The Voices That Never Fully Leave

Long before social media algorithms existed, I struggled deeply with body image and bulimia. I competed in pageants, environments where appearance wasn’t just noticed; it was evaluated, scored, and publicly judged.

Even though it has been more than 15 years since I last stepped onto a stage, those voices don’t completely disappear. Recovery teaches you how to respond differently to them, but occasionally they still get loud.

They whisper things like:

You should look better.
You’ve let yourself go.
Everyone else has figured this out.

Recovery doesn’t mean never hearing those thoughts again. It means learning not to believe them.

Social media, however, has a way of amplifying those old narratives.

The Comparison Machine in Our Pockets

Today’s social media platforms are not neutral spaces. They are designed to show us content that keeps our attention, and often, that content reflects highly curated, filtered, and unrealistic versions of life.

Some days my feed fills with images of the “perfect” life:

· The effortlessly stylish mom with flawless hair at school drop-off

· The perfectly organized home

· The smiling family eating picture-perfect meals

· The “trad wife” aesthetic promising peace through perfection

· Bodies that appear untouched by stress, aging, pregnancy, or real life

Intellectually, I know these images are curated. I know lighting, filters, editing, and selective storytelling are involved.

But eating disorders don’t live in logic, they live in emotion and non-logical beliefs.

And comparison is emotional.

For someone in recovery, or someone vulnerable to disordered eating, repeated exposure to unrealistic ideals can quietly reopen old wounds.

Why Social Media Can Be Especially Harmful in Eating Disorder Recovery

Social media fuels eating disorders in several subtle but powerful ways:

1. Constant Comparison

We are no longer comparing ourselves to a small social circle. We are comparing ourselves to thousands of carefully edited lives every day.

The brain begins to treat these images as the norm rather than the exception.

2. Algorithm Reinforcement

If you pause on one fitness post, weight-loss video, or appearance-focused image, the algorithm often sends more. Suddenly your feed becomes saturated with messages about productivity, beauty, thinness, or perfection, even if you never intentionally searched for them.

It can feel like the world is telling you who you should be.

3. Identity Pressure

Many people today feel pressure to excel simultaneously as:

· the perfect parent,

· the successful professional,

· the healthy eater,

· the stylish partner,

· the endlessly patient human.

No one can live up to all those roles perfectly, yet social media makes it appear achievable.

A Different Kind of Worth

Today, my life looks very different from my pageant years. I am a wife, a mother, an advocate, and a woman still practicing recovery every day.

Some mornings I leave the house without styled hair. Some days I feel behind. Some days the old voices try to return.

But recovery has given me something stronger than perfection: perspective.

My worth was never meant to be measured by appearance, productivity, or comparison.

And neither is yours.

If social media leaves you feeling smaller, remember this truth:

You are seeing highlights, not humanity.
You are comparing your real life to someone else’s performance.
And your healing matters more than any algorithm.

Scrolling doesn’t have to end in hurting.

With awareness, support, and compassion, it can become just one small part of a much fuller, more meaningful life.