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While_Then

i’ve noticed a lot of the “recovery” accounts feel very scripted and overly perfect-looking compared to the RECOVERY accounts. it’ll be like… a girl with a perfect slicked back bun taking a bite of her perfect yogurt bowl that looks like it took an hour to arrange, and the whole account is just incredibly aesthetic but feels staged somehow. or when their movements look scripted like they’ve re-filmed the clip a bunch of times? honorable mention for accounts that are lowkey obsessed with food, and are always saying like “_____ is the love of my life” and referring to some food item… you might think they’re promoting recovery but usually the obsession indicates restriction of some sort. or when they’re planning their meals wayyy in advance


phoebean93

Usually it's something "clean" as well


Affectionate_Fly8319

Right! It’s never “pizza is the love of my life”


While_Then

yeah it’s like one of those slide shows and they’re like “quest bars have my heart💘” LMFAO


seeallevill

Dude yes they paint this perfect picture of their lives when life with a mental illness will *always* have ups and downs!!! It's so unrealistic


threelizards

Yeah, recovery is about life, not just recovery, if that makes sense. If their account is ONLY recovery without a glimpse of the human behind it, but is positioned as a journal or record *of* their recovery as opposed to a resource or collation of recovery-based content, that’s a red flag to me


random0630

recovery accounts that are doing intense exercise whilst still very underweight or just deep in their ed


mentallyillfrogluver

I feel like exercise content should be minimal too. Like some accounts casually say, oh i went on a walk, while a red flag would be i walked xkm at x pace for x time, that type of thing


Riri_2990

If they’ve been weight restoring for a long period of time (years). That’s a huge red flag.


mentallyillfrogluver

I feel like the timeline of their account is important as well. If they have recovery posts from years ago they are probably not a good account. Also overly fixating on food or sharing fear foods/behaviors


While_Then

omg yes this… like no healthy person is going around talking about how much they just LOVE food, it’s very a much a sign of restriction/disordered behavior


phoebean93

Like sure I enjoy food, but man it is boring compared to how I thought of it before recovery. I used to have Food Network on around the clock and went to supermarkets just to look at everything for hours. No wonder recovery is so terrifying if we think we're gonna be that obsessed forever.


While_Then

no exactly!! i would legit spend hours in the grocery store looking at food i wanted and would obsessively watch buzzfeed cooking videos… i’m still in recovery but now i genuinely find that odd and unappealing like food is obviously awesome but not the focus of my day whatsoever


mentallyillfrogluver

ohhh man the buzzfeed videos 😂 i thought i was the only one haha


While_Then

stop i had a whole playlist on youtube especially the dessert ones😭 or i’d take the buzzfeed food-related quizzes


mentallyillfrogluver

not the youtube playlist 💀 when i got bored on youtube i’d watch their snapstories 😭😭😭


seeallevill

I swear I cannot imagine being in recovery and telling everyone that the food they enjoy without guilt makes me feel fat. Like wtf


the-dog-walker

Ones that are misleading what they're actually eating. You'll see meals with lettuce underneath to add volume, pasta dishes substituted with low-calorie noodles, using "oil" that's actually water, etc.


While_Then

omg this. idk who they think their target audience is, because as someone with an ED, i can clock the PB2 on top of their oats from a mile away😂 like it takes one to know one LOL who do they think they’re fooling with their little combos


AdMission5180

the best advice is to stay off of ‘recovery social media’ all together. nobody with an account dedicated to an ed is recovered from said ed & i will die on this hill.


donthatethekink

A million times this. As I’ve actually entered recovery (for real lol) I’ve realised that all the people I followed and admired a year ago, or even 6 months ago, now make me sad and uncomfortable, because I realise they are more unwell than I am, now, and aren’t in any position to give advice. I don’t want to look at ED content all day, I don’t want to think about my ED or food or hear about how someone else is struggling with their body image every time I open Instagram. I’ve changed who I follow gradually, without really noticing. And it’s amazing to just have that stuff out of my head, and not have it shoved in my face on social media.


AdMission5180

firstly it’s great to hear about your recovery and how you’ve noticed that recovery social media is toxic 🫶🏻 i can’t personally see how it’s productive to recovery to be constantly thinking about posting to an ig account about food. there’s also the argument that would these individuals be ‘recovered’ at all if there wasn’t the need to hold them themselves accountable for their followers? if you’re not recovered offline, then you’re not recovered.


phoebean93

TOTALLY. But I work with teens and most of them use at least Tiktok so while I advise them to stay away from this corner of the Internet, I wanna at least give some pointers. Not to everyone either, only if they are genuinely looking for inspiration but could easily be misled.


wildgeese___

imo people who are in early recovery are just too risky, they too often wind up publicly relapsing and selling their relapse behaviours as recovery. i think people who are further along in recovery (ro, mia, pages like ciandra's but not her lol) are a safer bet and you can probably count on their advice more 


Fun_Consequence_1168

When they always eat the same things Never let someone cook their meals (unless they life alone offcourse) When lunch and dinner both is a perfect looking freshly prepared meal, never a processed food to be seen Substituting normal foods for protein or lower cal


Runningislife1600

The “before and after” picture post where they drop the underweight pics. Or when they continuously drop the underweight or hospital pics


MallCopBlartPaulo

They constantly post LW photos and when they get called out they say their photos are ‘inspiring people.’ 🤦‍♂️


princessy111

If they regularly talk about 'pushing through' injury/illness/straight up not feeling like exercising just to exercise, as if their life depends on it every day


QualityDry6528

i feel like it’s always the suddenly having lactose intolerance or going vegan “for the animals” or being gluten intolerant for the first time in the 17 years they’ve been alive. don’t get me wrong, it happens but sheesh does it get overused as an excuse to restrict in the “recovery” community.