On the 17th November, Danny Bowman, Mental Health Spokesperson at Parliament Street spoke on the National Men Get Eating Disorders Too Conference in Brighton.
Danny spoke about Parliament Street’s recent research into the number of incidents of harassment, cyber-bullying and body shaming recorded by police in 2017. He told the conference that “although these figures don’t directly link the rise in male body image issues, they do show that social media is having an extremely detrimental effect on a lot of individuals in this country”. He went on to talk about the research paper he wrote for Parliament Street on ‘Mental Health and the Social Media Society’ outlining the key thoughts of testimonies of individuals who had fallen victim to the negative side of social media.
Danny who is now Vice-Chair of the charity talked about his story as an example of where social media can play an extremely negative role in the development of a body image issue but outlining a message of hope, saying that “recovery was possible” going through the parts of his life he has now got back. Ending his speech, Danny thanked everyone who helps men with eating disorders in the NHS and in other capacities. He finished with a rallying call, asking men who have suffered from a mental illness to speak out and “make change in mental health.”
The conference was attended by professionals from across the UK and beyond. Other speakers included Dr Rob Wilson (Chairman of the BDD Foundation and leading therapist), Maggie Morgan and Chris Podszus (Director of Communications & Stakeholder Engagement & Policy, Public Affairs and Research Officer at Fixers UK, Jenny Langley (Author of Boys Get Anorexia Too & Trainer for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust), Natasha Devon MBE (Author & spokesperson) as keynote and Dave Chawner who presented the conference.
Check out Danny’s full speech to conference below: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=danny+bowman
