Anorexia Web Sites May Fuel Disorder
July 3 -- With names like "Anorexic with Pride" and "Food is Evil," some new Web sites may be an unhealthy lure for those who suffer from eating disorders.
About 1,000 people a year die from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by self-starvation, food preoccupation, rituals and compulsive exercising.
Dozens of pro-anorexic or "pro-ana" Web sites devoted to the anorexic lifestyle exist in a sort of secret underground on the Web, encouraging the eating disorder with tips such as how to survive on 200 calories a day, or how to hide weight loss from parents.
Good Morning America's Internet expert Tiffany Shlain, who also founded the Webby Awards, says the sites seem more like a cry for help than a blueprint for how to become anorexic.
"I think you have to see them in the general context of the Internet," Shlain said on Good Morning America. "In general, it's a fantastic community to share interests, no matter how unique … But at the same time, people with common lifestyles, ailments, or sicknesses can find each other, which could foster a lot of dangerous behavior."
A Disturbed Diary
The sites she looked at seemed to be set up in the form of a diary, written by young girls hoping to feel less alone by chatting with people who share the same disturbed outlook, Shlain said. And with lines like "It's been 28 hours since I've ate," they seem to be a cry for help.
The authors of many of the sites hint that they know what they are doing is unhealthy and wrong. For example, the author of one site wrote: "I'd like to say right here, right now that I do not advocate a life of eating disorders." She then added that when people ask her for tips on becoming an anorexic, "I will always tell them to find a better way to deal with their problems or find a healthy lifestyle."
But others provide such tips as lining underwear with weights to fool doctors at a weigh-in.
"They don't seem so much bad as sad to me," Shlain said. "But there's no denying that some of them actually seem to be celebrating and reinforcing the dangerous habit of anorexia as a lifestyle."
