Woman develops anorexia after encountering harmful health content on social media, leading to life-threatening weight loss in 2021

Summary

A woman from Titchfield, Hampshire, said she developed anorexia after running the 2020 London Marathon and began encountering harmful health and wellbeing content on social media. Louisa Abbott described how anorexia-related content, including information about celebrities with eating disorders and low-calorie diets, worsened her condition. She said the content was "very dangerous" and contributed to her desire to "be the best at being anorexic." By May 2021, Ms Abbott had lost a third of her body weight and was told she had "four weeks to live." She sought help and described her recovery as a slow process with setbacks. Ms Abbott called on social media companies to fact-check health-related content to ensure it comes from legitimate sources.