One day last year I was chatting on AOL when a friend sent me a link to a Web site I'd never heard of before. When I went to the site, I was shocked to see what was downloading right before my eyes. My stomach turned, and a cold shiver of goose bumps ran down my arms.
On the screen were pictures of pitifully emaciated naked girls. Phrases like “anorexic queen” and “never too thin” bombarded my baffled mind as I tried to figure out what this site was about.
Teenage girls were promoting anorexia? I knew about the damaging effects of eating disorders. But never before had I seen firsthand the lengths that sufferers of these disorders may go to, and how sites take advantage of teens in need of recovery.
I was looking at a “pro-ana” (as in “pro-anorexia”) Web site. I felt sick, and I wasn’t the only one.
The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) of Seattle, WA, became aware of these sites a couple years ago, when sufferers of eating disorders started contacting them.
“These individuals had gone online to find help and treatment providers, and, unfortunately, many of these sites came up in their searches,” says Holly Hoff, director of programs for NEDA.
“We began hearing from eating disorder treatment providers who were seeing setbacks in their clients’ recovery processes, because clients were experimenting with new eating disorder behaviors they found on the sites,” adds Hoff.
I did not realize the extent of this secret society of “Weborexics,” which lurks behind the dark curtains of cyberspace. With the growing existence of Weborexics, society is no longer just planting the seeds of anorexia in young teens; it's also feeding and watering it.
Hoff agrees that the sites are damaging. She says that they can and do lead some people to develop an eating disorder, or they perpetuate an ongoing one.
“When people sign on—out of curiosity or to find a way to lose weight—they begin to experiment with dieting that can spiral out of control and become an active, destructive eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia ... and eating disorders can and do lead to death,” she says.
What is it that draws visitors to these sites?
Hoff says that by sharing self-destructive tips online, sufferers may feel like they're making friends or finding a supportive community.
“On these sites, people are thinking and acting like them, rather than asking them to seek help, change their behavior, and get well, which their friends and families are probably encouraging them to do.
“Anyone who would create these sites must be suffering a lot, and wanting to find some sort of connection or support. Unfortunately, the ‘support’ they think they’re finding encourages and enables deadly attitudes and actions,” says Hoff.
The makers of these pro-ana sites can defend themselves by placing the First Amendment on the table: Freedom of speech. They may argue that they can write whatever they please—no ifs, ands, or buts.
But the ifs, ands, or buts are too strong for the rest of us to just sit and watch them make a life-threatening disease into a game. Anorexia is not a game, and these sites just promote starvation.
Pro-ana site creators are not only harming themselves, they're killing other people. The Internet is filled with vulnerable youths—teens with low self-esteem; teens with distorted body images; and teens just trying to recover from eating disorders. These Web sites are like poison to them.
Editors’ Note: If you have an eating disorder, recovery can start with the help of these organizations:
National Eating Disorders Association
Something Fishy
Do you have comments about this story? Talk to us!
Do you have something to Sound Off about? Click here to send SEX, ETC. your opinion on any important teen sexuality and health issue.
