This Eating Disorders Awareness Week, the theme is community. Over the past six years as Chair and Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders, I have witnessed the power of community first-hand. Our APPG has grown into a determined group of MPs, campaigners, clinicians, researchers, families, and crucially, people with lived experience.
Yet, despite the strength of this community, I must confess to deep frustration. Over these six years, things have not improved, they have worsened.
Across the UK, it’s estimated that over 1.2 million people are living with an eating disorder. Since the pandemic, the number of children and young people seeking treatment has risen by almost two fifths. Adults are waiting months, and in some cases nearly two years, just to start treatment. For families, the experience is terrifying: urgent care is delayed, specialist support is patchy, and too often, people reach crisis before help arrives.
We have seen how the digital world is worsening this crisis. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube amplify harmful content and extreme body ideals. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate found that one in four videos recommended to simulated teenage users contained eating disorder-related content. One particularly alarming trend is so-called ‘recovery accounts’. Rather than supporting recovery, some share advice on hiding behaviours from staff or how to minimise meals.
This is not simply about individual users; it’s about algorithms designed to maximise engagement – even when that engagement harms vulnerable people. A single pause on a video can trigger a stream of increasingly harmful material. Even when users block accounts or report content, similar posts rapidly reappear under new hashtags.
We cannot continue to allow social media to act as an accelerant for a life-threatening illness. Social media companies must be held accountable for the ways their platforms deliberately encourage engagement that harms mental health.
But the online environment is only part of the picture in understanding the eating disorder crisis. We are failing to intervene early and consistently. In 2017, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman warned of avoidable deaths and systemic failings in NHS eating disorder services. It called for improved training, better coordination and cross-organisational learning. Nine years later, we are still seeing the same failures.
Across England, a significant proportion of specialist community eating disorder teams lack a consultant psychiatrist and vacancy rates for consultant posts remain high. Training across frontline services is patchy and often voluntary, specialist inpatient beds are insufficient, and adult waiting times remain unregulated.
Families are being left to navigate complex systems on their own, while watching their loved ones deteriorate.
Eating disorders are among the most complex and deadliest mental illnesses. People with anorexia are five to six times more likely to die than the general population. Yet despite this, eating disorders receive just 1% of mental health research funding. Death recording remains inconsistent, with many cases misattributed to organ failure or suicide, leaving us blind to the true scale of the crisis.
The eating disorder community is strong, passionate, and determined. Our goal is not only to grow this community beyond those already engaged but to reach those who have not yet recognised the signs, and to speak to those who might think eating disorders are ‘someone else’s problem’, because they are not.
Eating disorders do not discriminate. This is an issue that affects every single one of us. Whether it’s a friend, a colleague, a family member, or a neighbour, eating disorders can touch any part of our lives. It is unacceptable that in 2026, we are still failing to provide the care and intervention needed to prevent death and suffering.
We know what works: early intervention reduces the need for intensive treatment, proper training saves lives, and coordinated services improve outcomes. That’s why the APPG has repeatedly called for a cross-departmental national strategy that includes mandatory workforce training, stronger online regulation, a waiting time standard for adults, accurate death recording, and sustainable research funding.
The time for awareness has passed, it’s time for action. The government must take responsibility for this escalating crisis – the cost of inaction is too high, and the consequences often deadly.
