When Health Apps Become Unhealthy
Posted on: April 7th, 2015
Most of us view technological advancement as beneficial, but tech-savvy individuals understand that new technologies are a double-edged sword that almost always cut both ways.
The advent and mass adoption of health and fitness apps highlight this truth. On the one hand, many of these apps are useful educational tools. They provide nutritional breakdowns of foods and beverages, giving people a deeper understanding of wholesome foods that should make up a core diet versus junk foods that one needs to limit. Some apps help track daily consumption so you can be mindful of caloric intake and recommended daily allowances of fats, carbohydrates, sugars, etc. Then there are the fitness oriented apps that provide data on calories burned during various activities and exercises. They can even monitor vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure.
On balance, most would consider these apps positive and useful, but for those struggling with eating disorders health and fitness apps can be highly problematic. A common symptom of eating disorders is a preoccupation or obsession with food and exercise. An enormous amount of energy and thought goes toward food and exercise, and can occupy many hours of the day, keeping people from having normal, balanced lives. Take for example an anorexic that has a distorted relationship with food and is limiting calories to the extreme, or a bulimic that is binging and purging. A calorie-tracking app in the hands of these individuals could be used as a tool that amplifies their obsession with food and calories. They rigidly adhere to watching each and every calorie for a while, but inevitably this can’t be sustained and feelings of failure creep in, and those feelings can lead to self-destructive behaviors.
Their path to recovery requires the opposite of obsession or hyper-focus on food. They need to adopt a macro view and eat appropriate portions of nutritious foods, not take a micro perspective and concern themselves with the calories in a stalk of celery. Fitness apps present a similar problem. Many with eating disorders will over-exercise to maintain their unhealthy body weight, and it’s easy to see how they could use an exercise app excessively to negative effect – constantly tracking the caloric burn rate of activities throughout the day so they can achieve their unhealthy goal.
If you suspect you have an eating disorder please be cautious about using health and fitness apps and seek help. Maureen Kritzer-Lange Psychotherapy can offer a treatment plan that brings you relief. Email us at info@maureenkritzerlange.com or call (973) 313-1691.
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