Eating Disordered Celebrities and & GLP-1s: The Convo Nobody's Having

Remember when I wrote that long-ass article detailing the benefits & risks of GLP-1s for weight loss as opposed to diabetes management?  Here it is.  Yeah, I mentioned waaaay back then that eating disordered people would likely get their hands on them and either be triggered again or for the first time as they dropped weight rapidly, and that appears to be exactly what's happened.  See:  the current crop of dangerously thin celebrities who seemed to pop up out of nowhere.  

Body positivity was everywhere... until it wasn't.

For the last decade or so, curvy-bordering-on-obese was seen as the ideal body type, as if body shape and weight were another trend for women to follow.  In the spirit of the Kardashians & Beyonce, women flocked to doctors to get deadly Brazilian butt implants to make themselves appear more voluptuous.  I also covered that in an article on extremes in the American consciousness.  Now suddenly we've seen a swing back in the opposite direction.  But why?  Why are women (always women) suddenly looking like a slimmer version of Twiggy on the red carpet with no warning?  What innovation in weight loss hit the market at roughly the same exact time as these public-facing figures began to look skeletal?  

That's right:  GLP-1 medications.  Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Rybelsus and all the rest.  Even in the earliest days, there were whispers of doctors too willing to prescribe these medications to people who weren't obese and had NOT tried "everything" to shed the few vanity pounds they wanted to lose, which is the only population they should be used by outside of diabetics.  Everybody and their mama began shedding pounds rapidly and, as is customary for Americans, there was a rush on this class of medications.  Claims they could be used to prevent everything from cancer to drug, shopping and gambling addiction ("miracle drug") hit the media and suddenly everyone had to have them.  

Everybody.  Even people who didn't need them at all.  

The reality:  Anorexic/bulimic patients have BEEN abusing these drugs.

Just one problem:  they're prohibitively expensive for most people, and unless you have diabetes, you're not getting insurance to cover them.  Womp womp.  Enter grey-market peptides and compounding pharmacy concoctions.  These substances are much cheaper and more accessible and generally require no doctor's visit.  The only problem is they're produced in unregulated conditions and can kill you.  Nevertheless, Americans persisted in obtaining their magic potions by any means necessary.  RFK is now considering bypassing the usual human studies and making these substances fully legal with no restrictions, much to the FDA's chagrin.  

I feel a pendulum swing coming on.  

It wouldn't be the first:  amphetamines, Quaaludes, Fen-phen, opioids and other drugs have gone through the exact same miracle drug-to-demon drug cycle and we have the bodies to prove it.  But nobody seems to remember these tragedies, or learn from them.  Exhibit A:  Ariana (Not-So) Grande.


  

Sad & scary weight loss.

One of the dumbest takes I've seen claims this is part of some "early 2000s" trend returning, as if eating disorders started in the 2000s or are part of a fad.  They didn't and aren't: they're as much a mental illness as schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder.  Other opinionated morons go in the other direction, claiming that even speaking on it is "body shaming," which is equally absurd.  Do you say that when a celebrity is obviously drugged out of their skulls in public?  Having any other kind of mental health/financial/legal crisis?  No, of course not.  But because this one involves bodies and women and appearances, it's somehow taboo.  

Let me clear that up for those who are confused:  The criticism isn't about how they LOOK.  It's about the fact that they're going to DIE.  And likely take a lot of impressionable young girls (and a few boys) down with them.  Because eating disorders are a largely media-driven phenomenon.  Here are some more examples of recently-emaciated stars, with their alleged 2000s counterparts on the left:

Now if you honestly expect us to believe this isn't a result of GLP-1 or peptide abuse, I'm gonna need you to re-evaluate that position.  I don't know for a fact which of these women is taking which drugs, but I can say with a fair amount of certainty that weight loss drugs are involved in this sudden "trend" of scary-skinny celebrities.  Celebrities historically have no problem obtaining any drug they like from starstruck Hollywood doctors.  Big-name celebrities from Elvis all the way up to Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson & Matthew Perry died from Rx drug overdoses--medications prescribed legally, if unethically, by their doctors.  Why would anyone doubt that there'd be doctors willing to prescribe the non-addictive, non-mind altering GLP-1s?

My prediction:  a few of these beloved public figures will have to die before the tide officially turns on pharma's biggest cash cow.  Lawsuits will pour in, the media praise will turn into demonization & GLP-1s will be the latest demon drug du jour.  After that, good luck accessing them for anything other than the worst cases of diabetes as a last resort after metformin and all the rest.  Because that's what happens after the pendulum swings into "demon drug" territory:  the irrational fear sets in and the banhammer drops.  All benefits of a given substance are forgotten and it's now considered 100% dangerous & evil.  No middle ground.  This isn't the drug's fault, it's the fault of overzealous prescribers and a public with the collective memory of a fruit fly utterly incapable of understanding nuance.  You heard it here first.