Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Carol Monaghan Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Westminster Hall

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

It is pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Harris, and I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), who has campaigned tirelessly on the issue and brought the debate to the House today.

The hon. Lady talked about the focus on men and why that focus is important—one in four of those affected by an eating disorder is a man. We have heard some statistics today, including that there has been an increase of 128% in hospital admissions of men for this issue, so it is right that we should highlight it this morning. We have also heard that men are notoriously poor at asking for help, so it is important that we have so many male MPs here this morning, speaking out and raising awareness.

I want to talk about the BMI issue, which was mentioned by the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron). I remember having my BMI measured during a health screening process at my previous place of work. At the time, I was six months pregnant, but I was a slim six months pregnant.

[Jim Shannon]

You are still slim.

[Carol Monaghan]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that comment. However, I was told that my BMI showed that I was obese. I said, “I’m not obese, I’m pregnant”, and they said, “No, you are obese. You’re showing up as obese.” And they gave me a leaflet on obesity. It seemed that I could not break through that mindset. Those carrying out and promoting these tests sometimes have absolutely no understanding of what obesity is about. I was able to speak up for myself quite capably, but there may be others for whom it is different, so I totally agree with the comments about BMI.

The hon. Gentleman talked about the importance of intervention and how it makes such a difference. He spoke about a young lady in his constituency who is alive today because of an intervention to help her. All of us have to hear those types of stories.

I am a teacher by profession, and over the years I worked with a number of young people who had eating disorders. It was interesting that most of them wanted to get better; they understood that there was an issue. It was often high-performing young people, as well; eating disorders represented an element of control for them. We saw that early intervention made such a difference for them. It was important that teaching staff and other people in a young person’s life were able to recognise the signs early on, and did not put them down to, “She’s just doing a bit of extra exercise”, or, “He’s just trying to achieve that body.”

Unrealistic expectations are put on young people. We have heard from a number of Members this morning about the impact of social media. I would add that some TV programmes also have an impact. I will name one in particular: “Love Island”. It shows beautiful young people with perfect bodies wandering about all day, scantily dressed. If young people aspire to those unrealistic standards, it is not good for anyone. The producers of such programmes need to take responsibility for their impact.

The NHS digital survey asked children and young people aged between 11 and 19 a number of questions, including, “Have you ever thought you’re fat when other people said you were thin?”, “Have you ever made yourself deliberately throw up?” and “If you eat too much, do you blame yourself?”. The responses were really worrying. Among 11 to 19-year-olds, 12.9% screened positive, meaning that they answered yes to two or more of those questions. Among 17 to 19-year-olds, the screening positive figure was 60%. If that is what young people are thinking, then we are at crisis level.

The waiting times to receive help are too long. We heard from the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake) about a 2017 report on eating disorders that referred to patients being failed, and how that situation really has not improved. We also heard harrowing stories about patients being restrained, which I think all of us here were quite disturbed by.

The right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes), who is Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, talked about the impact of shortages in services on those affected by eating disorders, and mentioned that it would not do young people any good to be treated in adult services. We must provide appropriate treatment in appropriate settings.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) talked about two very prominent women, Karen Carpenter and Lena Zavaroni. I will talk about a colleague of mine who had an eating disorder. She was getting over it when, sadly, she had a heart attack and died. We do not talk enough about the long-term impact of eating disorders on physical health. We know that the heart is affected by them.

As time is short, I will scoot through my speech and get to the asks. First of all, we need action on social media companies that target vulnerable individuals. We also need the removal of calories from menus; their inclusion was aimed at tackling obesity, but unfortunately the message is hitting the wrong people. We need better input to mental health services, and we absolutely need signposting for families who are going through the trauma of having a family member suffer from an eating disorder.

Finally, I thank the hon. Member for Bath once again for securing this debate, and for giving us all an opportunity to speak about the issue this morning.