In the last seven years, the number of boys admitted to hospitals in Britain have doubled. In 2010 there was 235 boys in hospital, but this year there has already been 466. These figures are from NHS Digital.
Eating disorders are one of the biggest mental health issues for young people in the UK and while there are more girls going into hospitals than boys, the number of boys getting help is rising much faster. Health experts have put the growing numbers down to pressure for social media but awareness about eating disorders are to be encouraged by boys, so help is there. Experts are noticing a rise in the condition called “bigorexia”, this is the muscle dysmorphia that causes someone to feel smaller than they are; this can be caused by seeing others on social media that may have bigger muscles.
There is no research to show that social media causes some eating disorders, but it can more than likely make things worse. A number of boys have said that they would like to have more muscles or skinnier as people judge what you look like more due to what they see on social media. Some boys have said they feel the need to dress a certain way and wear certain clothes in order to be seen good in pictures and to be liked.
Sandeep Ranote, a child psychiatrist says: “A lot of social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are all about posting images that can be changed. They’re not real… the impact of that on young people is that it leads you to think that’s how you should look.”
“Seeing that constantly can make you feel that you are not good enough and that can have an effect on your emotional health.”
The NHS Digital review found children aged 11 to 19 with a mental health problem were more likely to use social media. Nearly a third spent over four hours a day on social media. Those who did not have a mental health problem were two to three less likely to spend that amount of time on social media. It can be linked to cyber-bulling on social media and the number of ‘likes’ that lead to emotional disorders.
Around £700 million is spend on CAHMS and eating disorder support. The commissioner said an extra £1.7 billion would be need to be invested to bring children’s services in line as services of adults receive 15 times more funding despite children representing 20% of the population. This extra funding could help pay for more early help by funding NHS counsellors in schools.
Both NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have made improving children’s mental health care a priority. The commissioner’s report noted that an investment was increasing and there has been good progress in terms of tackling eating disorders with new services and strict targets for access. A new four-week target for access to CAHMS is also going to be run soon. An NHS England spokesman said services were improving and in the coming years another 70,000 children will be able to access support. Ministers have also been putting pressure on social media firms to do more about cyber bulling and aggressive behaviour online.
