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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/em> is known for its unvarnished look at the drama, aspirations and personal struggles of the women who pioneered\u00a0#MomTok<\/a>, and the fourth season, which premiered last week, is no different. The latest installment goes deep on an under-discussed issue that\u2019s become all too common in recent years. Late in the season, cast member Layla Taylor reveals that she\u2019s been abusing GLP-1s \u2014 a practice she says has become \u201ca very negative part of the Utah culture.\u201d<\/p>\n In Episode 10, Layla tells her friends that she\u2019s struggled with body image, and with disordered eating, since she was a young girl. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be small enough in my head,\u201d she says, \u201cand I know it\u2019s affecting me.\u201d In the past year, she reveals, she\u2019s begun using GLP-1s despite having no medical need for them. She also believes she\u2019s far from the only one in her community to do this. \u201cI can\u2019t even count on both hands how many people I know abuse GLP-1s, like myself,\u201d she says, \u201cand it\u2019s a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n As GLP-1 drugs become easier to access in a culture once again obsessed with thinness,<\/a> they are colliding with a long-standing public health crisis: eating disorders. For a subset of vulnerable users, these medications aren\u2019t just a weight loss tool, but a powerful new way to reinforce disordered eating. Because this generation of GLP-1s is a relatively new innovation and many users access the drugs outside of medical supervision \u2014 from sources like online prescribing systems and compounding pharmacies \u2014 it\u2019s difficult to measure just how widespread this problem has become.<\/p>\n There are pretty much no limitations on who can access these medicines, regardless of whether you\u2019re overweight or have an indication for the medicines or not.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote> That many people \u2014\u00a0particularly those who struggle with eating disorders \u2014\u00a0are abusing GLP-1s doesn\u2019t surprise Amanda Banks, a practicing physician who advises multiple biotech and pharmaceutical companies (none involved in GLP-1 production). \u201cThere are pretty much no limitations on who can access these medicines, regardless of whether you\u2019re overweight or have an indication for the medicines or not,\u201d she said. The only requirement? \u201cAs long as you can pay.\u201d<\/p>\n Nine percent of the U.S. population<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s 30 million people \u2014 will at some point in their lives struggle with an eating disorder. For this population, the use of GLP-1s can trigger a whirlwind of difficult and dangerous experiences, both physical and emotional.<\/p>\n Rebecca Boswell, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Perelman School of Medicine and the director of Penn Medicine\u2019s Princeton Center for Eating Disorders<\/a>, explains that GLP-1s compromise patients\u2019 ability to eat intuitively by silencing hunger cues. This can be especially dangerous for those with eating disorders.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people [on GLP-1s] don\u2019t get adequate nutrients to support their body systems when they have such profound appetite loss,\u201d Boswell says, \u201c[and] we see those effects of malnutrition and eating disorders regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n Too often, the rapid weight loss that GLP-1s trigger can become self-reinforcing for users with eating disorders. Author and fat activist Amanda Martinez Beck<\/a> had been previously diagnosed with atypical anorexia nervosa but began using GLP-1s under a doctor\u2019s supervision in 2021 after a COVID-19 infection spiked her blood sugar levels. At the time, GLP-1s were not as widely prescribed and Martinez Beck did not know about their weight loss effects. Had she known, she says, she probably would have decided against them. She noted that because our society prizes thinness, the desire to lose weight can feel logical regardless of how it actually impacts your health.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get treated better [when you\u2019re thin],\u201d Martinez Beck says. \u201cYou get better outcomes with medical providers because they pay more attention and spend more time with you. Your pain is taken seriously. You have greater opportunities for love because people are prejudiced against fat bodies.\u201d The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n Beginning the medication was easy, but Martinez Beck struggled when she tried (again, under a physician\u2019s supervision) to stop taking the drug for three months last year. \u201cIt screwed up my brain,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause I hadn\u2019t had to deal with [hunger cues] in years.\u201d Once again, she began experiencing the panic attacks, anxiety and fear of food that had historically accompanied her eating disorder.<\/p>\n As relatable as Layla\u2019s revelation likely feels to women across the country, it also highlights a specific cultural phenomenon. Fairly or not, \u201cUtah beauty<\/a>\u201d has come to represent both homogeneity and artifice: long mermaid waves, Anglo faces and lots of pastels, an ideal that many associate with the state. A 2017 study from Utah State University<\/a> said that the state employs more plastic surgeons per capita than Los Angeles, and that two-thirds of Utah Mormon women know someone who has undergone cosmetic surgery.<\/p>\n Sarah Coyne, professor of human development at Brigham Young University, has studied how those pressures play out within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2023, Coyne coauthored a study<\/a> that found that religious affiliation can often protect people from negative body image, with one important exception. Cosmetic enhancements turned out to be more common among participants who bought into perfectionism and \u201ccostly grace,\u201d referring to the idea that one must earn divine love through total obedience.<\/p>\n Those things all come together to create this very competitive environment, where then, perhaps, we see feelings of perfectionism bloom even more than we would, say, in more diverse areas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote> \u201cIn particular areas [of Utah], there tends to be a high level of homogeneity in terms of the way people think that women should be; in terms of dress or appearance; in terms of body shape or size; in terms of race or lack of diversity,\u201d Coyne says. \u201cI think that those things all come together to create this very competitive environment, where then, perhaps, we see feelings of perfectionism bloom even more than we would, say, in more diverse areas.\u201d<\/p>\n You can see how that kind of environment can then trigger the onset of eating disorders, with the explosive rise of GLP-1s further complicating the picture.<\/p>\n Although she has not watched the most recent season of SLOMW,<\/em> Coyne says she feels \u201ca lot of empathy for Layla.\u201d \u201cShe just must feel so much pressure around appearance, and that\u2019s a hard place to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Real vulnerability, no guardrails<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The bodily price of \u2018costly grace\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Healing from the inside<\/strong><\/h2>\n