Pro-Anorexia Groups Masquerade as Support on Facebook

CitizenSugar — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:30:31 -0800

Pro-ana, or pro-anorexia, sites have been infuriating the Internet for years by proclaiming eating disorders are not disorders at all, but lifestyle choices. Just like my entire high school, they eventually made their way to Facebook, but according to Newsweek, the social-networking site du jour isn't having it. Facebook regularly deletes groups, citing promotion of self-harm and harm to others.

How's that working out? Not terribly, if you only measure the surface. None of my "pro-ana" or "ana" searches returned anything fruitful, but these groups are way too savvy to give it away in the title. Most overt pro-ana groups have become private or operate under less obvious names. The better to avoid turning up in search results.

But even while they hide beneath the radar, I didn't have to search hard to find "support" groups with people looking for dieting tips and tricks. "Don't always purge until the morning. And I'm packing the weight back on. Any suggestions?" That kind of support. It's like there are two conversations going on: one genuinely looking to break the eating-disorder cycle and another looking to perpetuate it.

To be fair, the majority are legitimate recovery groups. But unlike the more, um, "inclusive" groups, those focused on getting better openly and adamantly oppose pro-ana talk, clearly telling users to look elsewhere if they've come to post measurements and pictures.

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Book Bag: Wintergirls

TresSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:00:00 -0700

“I bit the days off in rows. . . . Bite. Chew. Swallow."

Laurie Halse Anderson's new novel, Wintergirls, is narrated by 18-year-old Lia, who has had anorexia since the 8th grade.

It begins on the morning that she finds out that her best friend Cassie has died, and follows her through her struggle with anorexia and its paradoxical dictates: sickness is strength, courting death is taking control, and nourishment is weakness. Having lost Cassie, with whom she bonded over anorexia, Lia finds comfort in "pro-ana" anorexia chat rooms. To find out what one reviewer thought of Wintergirls as well as why some experts worry about anorexia narratives, read more.

Described by one reviewer as "a fearless, riveting account of a young woman in the grip of a deadly illness," Wintergirls and other books with eating disorders as their subject nevertheless spark fears among those who work with anorexic patients. Will these narratives help them to explore their disorders in order to get well, or will it serve as a "thinspiration" trigger, stoking their self-destructive desires to waste away?

"There is a dangerous trend to view anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a serious mental illness," says Cynthia M. Bulik, director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "It is true that seeing someone they perceive as thinner, seeing pictures of other thin girls, hearing about someone’s new approach to starvation, can all trigger someone with anorexia or someone who is on the verge. There is an inexplicable competitiveness about the starvation process in this illness."

Have you known anyone with anorexia or have you struggled with it yourself? Do books like Wintergirls help or harm?

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