If someone had told my teenage self that a magical drug would make me thin, I’d have taken it without question. Not that I had an eating disorder, at least not in the sense that I ever starved myself or made myself sick after meals. But back then, negative thoughts about my body consumed me in a way that was far from healthy. This was despite the fact that I was, objectively, slim already. But like all of my female friends, I was riddled with insecurities about the way I looked, and would remain so until my mid-twenties.
Now, that magical drug exists. It’s called semaglutide – though you probably know it as Ozempic or Wegovy – and while it’s helping millions of people with type 2 diabetes, as it’s licensed to do, it’s also being obtained by people with eating disorders (or in some cases simply a desire to be slimmer) who are using the drug off-label as a quick fix for weight loss. Reports of this began in 2023, when a Wall Street Journal article revealed that some doctors were prescribing Ozempic to binge-eating patients to help treat their condition.
