Our View on Weight-Loss Injections and Eating Disorders
It can sometimes feel like conversations about weight loss injections are creeping into all aspects of our lives. In the past couple of months, I’ve seen adverts from social media influencers promoting the jabs, heated debates about the pros and cons of celebrities sharing their experiences using them, casual mentions of their use on TV shows and political debates around their pricing.
For people like me who have personal experience with eating disorders, these unavoidable messages can trigger feelings that put them back in their recovery and, in some cases, might trigger eating disorders to come back again.
We know from evidence and from stories of people we’ve supported that the use of weight-loss medications without the right support can lead to devastating outcomes. These medications require careful regulation, thorough mental health screening, and should not be prescribed to individuals with current or previous eating disorders without specialist oversight and psychological support.
Client P was placed on Mounjaro by her healthcare provider. Unfortunately, rather than offering support, the prescription significantly worsened her mental health.
At the time, food served as a vital dopamine source for her, a way to regulate and self-soothe. The weight loss drug suppressed this, but no alternative coping strategies were put in place. As a result, Client P turned to other means, including an increase in self-harm. She continued to binge, but with heightened shame and guilt due to being on the medication. By the time she arrived in therapy, she was in a state of deep crisis.
Through our work together, we introduced structure, established regular eating patterns (addressing her binge–restrict cycle), and ensured she was adequately nourishing her body. Over time, this approach naturally reduced her bingeing without the need for external suppression.
Today, Client P is off medication and making steady progress. She is managing her mental health more effectively, swimming regularly, eating in tune with her body’s needs, and has developed new stimming strategies that work well for her.
As these injections become more widely available online, often without the correct support, the risk of people developing eating disorders while using them or triggering previous disorders increases.
We also know that most people regain the weight they lost when they come off these medications, making the end of treatment a crucial point to receive psychological support. Rapid weight loss can have detrimental physical effects too, which should be better communicated to those who choose this method – the body can go into “starvation mode” regardless of weight or BMI.
Looking to the future, we want to see more restrictions on weight-loss injection advertising, particularly on social media, as well as more balanced, accurate and responsible media reporting, particularly while we are still learning about the effects of long-term and widespread use of these medications, recognising the specific uses they have been approved for. We also want to see more research into the psychological impacts of rapid weight loss medications and the best way to psychologically support those coming off them.
While we recommend people only access these medications through a healthcare professional, we recognise the importance of providing support to those who choose to purchase them privately. While we do not help people to lose weight, our private practice offers support to people in this situation, ensuring they receive the right psychological support while on and coming off these medications. You can get support by visiting our website: https://firststepsed.co.uk/private-practice/ or calling 0300 1021685.
Client F was able to purchase weight loss injections easily online. The process required him to input his BMI, which he falsified, and then upload edited photographs posed in ways that did not represent his true body size.
As a gay male, he felt intense body image pressures from the community around him. These expectations became crippling, leading him to believe he had no choice but to use these drugs in order to be accepted.
However, what followed was devastating. He became dependent on the injections and, combined with severe restriction, this resulted in hospitalisation with heart complications and palpitations.
Through therapeutic work together, he has gradually reduced and eventually stopped using the injections altogether. He has begun to recognise that his worth is not defined by his body size, and together we have explored where his distorted body ideals stem from. Our work has focused significantly on rebuilding self-esteem, challenging unhelpful beliefs, and strengthening his sense of self beyond appearance.
He now fully recognises just how dangerous these drugs were, both to his physical health and his emotional wellbeing. Most importantly, he has chosen a different path, one rooted in care, nourishment, and self-acceptance.
Today, he is free from the physical complications caused by the drugs, and continues to heal. His journey is proof that while the pressures of body image can be consuming, recovery and self-worth can grow stronger than any injection. His story is no longer one of destruction, but of resilience, awareness, and hope.

Written by Daniel Magson
CEO, First Steps ED