Should I watch a movie or tv show about eating disorders?

How to handle potentially triggering content

Living with an eating disorder often feels lonely. We might isolate ourselves from friends and family in fear of sharing our feelings and thoughts, while also craving connection with someone who understands or validates our experience.

Given these feelings, it’s natural we might be tempted to watch TV shows, movies, or other media content about other people’s experience with disordered eating – but how do you know if this is going to be helpful or harmful for your recovery, and what can you do if you are triggered by certain content?

We live in a world bombarded with TV shows, movies, and similar media content (let alone social media, but that’s for another blog). This media has a huge influence on people’s beliefs and attitudes, including how people view eating disorders and those with lived experience of eating disorders.

Portrayals of eating disorders are often inaccurate and negative, contributing to shame and stigma. Watching potentially harmful or triggering content can also contribute to body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, or eating disorders.

In this blog, Butterfly’s Helpline Supervisor Leanne explores why and offers support for people navigating triggering content.

What’s the risk?

We are triggered when we have a physical or emotional response to something. A movie or TV show can trigger people with body image concerns, disordered eating, or eating disorders in different ways.

People can feel uncomfortable, anxious, or experience urges to cope in harmful ways. They might copy the behaviours they see or compare themselves and think they are not “sick enough” to need or deserve help.

Someone without an eating disorder might be susceptible to messages around weight loss and looking a certain way. TV shows and movies may glamorise or romanticise dieting and other eating disorder behaviours, sending a message that these behaviours are a lifestyle choice or something to aspire to. They are not. Eating disorders are serious and potentially life-threatening mental illnesses; they are not a lifestyle choice or a diet gone ‘too far’.

These shows can also perpetuate myths and stigma. Most media continues to portray people with eating disorders as being underweight, white, middle-class, adolescent, and female. In truth, body dissatisfaction and eating disorders affect people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes, and no matter what you look like or how much you weigh, you can still struggle with food and your body, and have a diagnosis of an eating disorder.

Can this content ever be helpful?

Maybe. Some TV shows and movies depicting body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are genuinely created to be helpful. They might even have content produced in consultation with people with lived experience and experts in the field.

In doing so, these shows might raise awareness about the various types of eating disorders, how eating disorders might develop over time, how they present in and affect different individuals, and the challenges people encounter in seeking treatment and recovery. Importantly, they can also portray the devastating impacts that eating disorders have on the lives of individuals and the loved ones supporting them.

However, this content will rarely be problem free, and what might be comforting or helpful for one person can be triggering for another. Be cautious!

How will I know I’m ready to watch?

Firstly, it’s ok if you never are ready. You might not be interested, you might not want to take the risk, or you might want to take a stand against portrayals of eating disorders altogether. If this is you, these reasons are valid, and you are entitled to have and honour them.

If you feel you might be ready, or you are curious to see if you are ready, asking yourself these questions can be a useful starting point:

• Where am I at in my recovery journey? Am I relapsing, in recovery, or recovered?
• How loud is my eating disorder voice today?
• Is my interest in this show coming from the eating disorder part of me? How does my “healthy self” feel about this?
• What are the pros and cons of me watching this content?
• How emotionally stable am I feeling today? How will I react if I see potentially triggering content?
• What would my psychologist or treatment team suggest about watching this?
• What would I suggest to a friend if they were in my position?

It might best to give the show or movie a miss for now if you are early in your recovery journey, hitting a bumpy patch (they happen – recovery is not linear!), feeling driven by your eating disorder voice, struggling to emotionally self-regulate, wouldn’t recommend it to a friend, or your treatment team wouldn’t recommend it to you. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll never be ready. It might mean you’re just not ready now.

Here are some tips if you or a loved one are triggered when watching TV shows or media content about eating disorders:

• Be aware. We have so many options for TV shows, movies, and media content. It won’t always be immediately obvious if the content is triggering and much of what we see on screen today is created in a world still heavily influenced by diet culture and body shaming. Aim to research the content or read reviews beforehand. There are websites that list trigger and content warnings for movies, films, TV shows and books such as Does the Dog Die (initially created to prevent people from being triggered by seeing an animal die in a movie). Netflix’s Wanna Talk About It website also lists support resources, including Butterfly’s Helpline, and information on current shows that showcase sensitive issues and may be triggering.
• Get picky! If there’s a warning of triggering content, or you get the sense the show could bring up topics around weight loss, body image, or eating, check in with where you are at in your recovery journey. Maybe there’s a better option you could be watching instead.
• Turn the TV off or put down your device for a period of time and reconnect with activities that bring you joy, contentment, or meaning.
• Be curious. Our feelings about a movie or TV show can tell us a lot ourselves. Explore your feelings, name them, and be curious about why the show brought these feelings up for you. Share these thoughts with a trusted friend, family member, or health professional.
• Practice self-care & self-compassion. Reflect on what has worked for you in the past to help you self-regulate and process the feelings & thoughts that have come up for you.
• Reach out. If you or your loved one are feeling triggered, lonely, or wanting to connect with someone who understands your experience, ask for help. You deserve it!

Get support – we’re here to help

• Butterfly’s National Helpline provides confidential and free counselling, support and information 7 days a week (8am-midnight AEST/AEDT) for anyone in Australia who is concerned about eating disorders or body image concerns.  Call 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673), chat online or email support@butterfly.org.au
• Find an eating disorder healthcare professional – search our Referral Database for healthcare professionals that specialise in eating disorders.
• Find out more about how we help  

Written by Leanne Storey, Supervisor on Butterfly’s National Helpline 1800 ED HOPE.

Leanne joined the Helpline as a counsellor in March 2024 with experience supporting those impacted by eating disorders and body image concerns. Prior to joining Butterfly, Leanne worked with the Sunshine Coast’s endED Eating Disorder Support Network. With a background in psychology and counselling, Leanne has focused her studies and career on eating disorders and body image, completing an honours thesis on Compulsive Exercise as a Predictor of Orthorexia Nervosa, Psychological Distress, and Lower Life Satisfaction.

Leanne co-authored a peer-reviewed article earlier this year on An inflexible adherence to food rules mediates the longitudinal association between shape/weight overvaluation and binge eating. Leanne also has lived experience and a strong belief in the power of lived experience to help give individuals and their loved ones understanding, hope, and connection in recovery.