The following article explores the realities of eating disorders and may include descriptions of disordered behaviors. It is intended to raise awareness and promote education. We advise caution for readers who may find this content triggering.

Anorexia often presents itself as a means of control—an illusion that, in the end, is as destructive as it is deceptive. “That’s what makes it so dangerous,” says Sab*, a 24-year-old model from Makati. “It starts with a high school bully picking at you, then your agent telling you to lose a few inches, but now, I starve because I starved yesterday. I did the same the day before that. It’s just this compulsive cycle that’s impossible to break.” She speaks as though it’s a matter of routine, but in reality, the pattern is one of unrelenting self-destruction. Modeling, with all its polished glamour, is in stark contrast to the girl sitting before me—shivering in a tweed jacket, her body frail, her lanugo-covered face etched with exhaustion.

For seven years, she’s held her weight steady, a marker that no longer signifies health but rather a rigid, controlling obsession. To her 5,000 followers on X, her life is presented as a curated ideal. But what they don’t see behind her posts is the terrifying truth of eating disorders—the perilous cycle of starvation that is far from the glamorous image she presents.

Every 52 minutes, someone loses their life to an eating disorder. This alarming statistic underscores the deadly nature of these conditions, which continue to grow unchecked, particularly in an era where societal pressures and the rise of social media have made anorexia, bulimia, and other disorders not just more visible, but tragically, more celebrated. Anorexia, the deadliest of eating disorders, is responsible for more deaths than any other mental illness. A 2020 review by Current Opinion in Psychiatry found that individuals hospitalized for anorexia are more than five times as likely to die earlier than their peers. The disorder’s high mortality rate, which includes suicides, serves as a grim reminder that the pursuit of control over one’s body can lead to irrevocable consequences.

To gain a deeper understanding of the risks, Allure Philippines reached out to leading experts in the field. Psychotherapist Fiona Yassin, the director of The Wave Clinic, a globally-recognized treatment facility for eating disorders, sheds light on the staggering reality of the condition. Alongside her is Dr. Pia Parker-Serviento, MD, an adolescent medicine specialist at the Makati Medical Center, who emphasizes the dangers of normalizing restrictive behaviors in younger populations.

When Sickness Goes Viral

The body positivity movement of the 2010s made significant strides toward embracing diverse body types, but today, that progress seems to be rapidly regressing as the pro-skinny rhetoric of the 2000s resurfaces. On social media, many are now claiming that it’s easier to starve yourself into a “skinny” ideal than to pay for expensive cosmetic procedures like a Kardashian-esque BBL. 

But we seem to be forgetting that anorexia isn’t a trend, it’s a disease. As disturbing as it is, platforms like Instagram and X have fostered environments where anorexia and other eating disorders are glamorized. Posts like “you don’t deserve to eat” or comments encouraging self-harm to deal with body image issues are seen as a form of “inspiration” for losing weight, where self-hate and harsh insults are not only accepted, but highly encouraged. “I would say that it is more pronounced with the rise of social media,” Dr. Parker-Serviento confirms. The relentless desire for thinness isn’t just a societal pressure—it’s become a curated, algorithm-driven mandate. 

A lot of this has to do with the fact that “adolescents are now digital natives, and information is just one click away,” says Dr. Parker-Serviento. “Eating disorders have always been there, and screening for it is part of our surveillance as pediatricians, especially among our teen patients. I don’t think this is a ‘new wave,’ but perhaps it is [now] normalized. It seems to be propelled and promoted by social media in a way that advertises what an ideal body or weight should be.” 

The ideal of “skinny” has taken on a new form, morphed into an inescapable presence on digital platforms, where apps push forward content that glorifies weight loss. With social media regulations too loose to curb this harmful content, users—mostly young, impressionable women—are bombarded with messages that validate disordered eating habits, making it harder than ever to avoid the cultural fixation on unattainable beauty standards. 

Yassin also weighs in: “Social media has made a huge difference, particularly visually,” she says. “Platforms like Instagram, where young people follow others with millions of followers—many of whom advocate for pro-anorexia behaviors—are driving this issue.” Yassin talks about the broader risks of sharing personal struggles online, particularly in online communities, where users share “before and after” photos, often unclothed. Beyond promoting harmful behaviors, posting sensitive photos and details exposes young people to serious vulnerabilities, making their safety a growing concern in the digital age.

In spite of anorexia’s relentless grip on the internet, conversations about eating disorders remain rare, especially in a country like the Philippines. As of writing, there are only about a handful of local publications that have chosen to put out stories with the aim of addressing eating disorders.

Silently Suffering From an Eating Disorder

Anorexia often emerges as subtle, seemingly benign habits—skipping breakfast, cutting out carbs—that disguise themselves as wellness trends. Gradually, these routines slip into the background of daily life until they quietly spiral into something far more insidious. Dr. Parker-Serviento notes that it can be challenging for families to recognize when something is amiss, as people struggling with EDs may not overtly skip meals, but instead significantly reduce their caloric intake. 

Social media has also had a hand in normalizing orthorexia, an eating disorder that involves a relentless fixation on “clean eating,” destroying people’s relationships with food under the pretense of health. A study conducted as recently as 2024 and published on PLOS One suggests that 64 percent of women are being exposed to “disordered eating” content including disordered versions of “What I Eat In A Day,” on their TikTok “For You” page. After being shown content falling under these categories, study participants showed a decrease in body image satisfaction and an increase in degree of internalization of appearance ideals. 

Though they don’t always disclose their caloric intake, it doesn’t take rocket science to see that these “wellness-centric” What I Eat In A Day videos show women ingesting no more than 800 calories a day, 700 calories below the latest Philippine FDA-recommended daily caloric intake for women from 2015. 

On the other hand, families can impose disordered eating habits, though well meaning. “Fatphobia” can also start at home, as a combination of upbringing and cultural norms. Severely controlling a child’s diet can foster disordered eating patterns, such as obsessive calorie counting and an unhealthy fear of “bad foods.” 

Yassin goes on to discuss how, at home, “there are lots of messages associated with body size, and quite often, we find that parents and people in the family have their own quite significant issues with food and body.” Many Asian families seeking help from Yassin also often downplay the severity of eating disorders. There is a prevailing belief that these issues can’t be that critical when affected family members are still high-functioning individuals and otherwise appear successful.

Rethinking Treatment

In the Philippines, there’s a growing recognition of the need for structured interventions, as exemplified by the proposed Eating Disorders Awareness Prevention and Education Act (or Gustavo Tambunting’s House Bill No. 4318), which aims to involve key government agencies in a more comprehensive, research-driven approach to prevention and treatment.

Dr. Parker-Serviento screens eating disorders routinely, and she notices how the digital age has ushered in a sense of openness in discussing eating disorders both online and in person. “[Patients] are ready to express their fears and confusion, and listen to advice and agree to suggestions in terms of intervention,” she says. “Often, before they come in for consultation, they have already looked for and searched online and have already diagnosed themselves.” When diagnosed early enough, Dr. Parker-Serviento provides interventions depending on the patient’s condition. More severe symptoms require co-managing with psychiatrists.

At The Wave Clinic, one of the very few centers dedicated to treating eating disorders in Southeast Asia, Yassin’s team of doctors, nurses, chefs, dietitians, and holistic specialists offer a variety of interventions, ranging from in-patient family interventions and therapy rooted in the arts to a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Yassin also advocates for recovery coaching from coaches “who are quite often people with lived experience or can provide peer support,” which she believes is truly important, emphasizing that “current literature suggests that having lived experience on a treatment team is really beneficial for young people in instilling hope and decreasing stigma.” Still, Yassin believes that treatment for eating disorders has a lot of room for improvement, since most treatment methods are too focused on models that only work in the West.

The Price of Control

Sab shows me her now-defunct “wellness” group chat. The last message was sent in 2023, and she says it’s normal for EDTwt group chats to die out eventually, just as most accounts do. There’s a part of me that hopes these girls logged off because they recovered, but Sab’s silence and stoic visage tells me they also could have passed away. I think of Bottoms star Rachel Sennott’s viral satirical video, where she says, “If you don’t have an eating disorder, get one,” and though it might’ve been a joke, it was definitely reflective of how eating disorders are perceived today—a trend everyone feels compelled to hop on. And with Ozempic popping up in Instagram ads and eating disorder content thriving on social media, many seem to forget why eating disorders are dangerous in the first place. Anorexia is malnourishment. It weakens your bones, shrinks your brain, slows your heartbeat, and prevents your wounds from healing. Yet, in a culture where illness has been repackaged as a symbol of control and discipline, the physical consequences remain all but invisible.

In this landscape, it’s vital to remember that eating disorders are not a fleeting trend or a passing phase—they are dangerous, life-threatening conditions that require real attention. If you suspect someone you know is struggling, don’t wait for them to reach out. Initiate a conversation, approach them with empathy, and encourage professional help. In the Philippines, though there are no specific medical centers that specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, some doctors have similar protocols to measures taken by Dr. Parker-Serviento, while organizations like the National Center for Mental Health provide resources for those dealing with eating disorders. Education and awareness are the first steps in dismantling the dangerous romanticization of these illnesses. It’s time to recognize that the pursuit of control over one’s body can never outweigh the value of life itself.

*Name has been changed