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Young sufferers of anorexia and bulimia who try to hide their eating problems from their parents and doctors are turning to a growing number of Internet chat rooms dedicated to perpetuating their illness.
A pilot study released on Monday of U.S. eating disorder patients aged between 10 and 22 showed that up to a third learn new weight loss or purging methods from Web sites that promote eating disorders by enabling users to share tips, such as what drugs induce vomiting and what Internet sites sell them.
But the study — published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics — found that eating disorder sufferers were also learning new high-risk ways to lose weight from each other on Web sites aimed at helping them recover.
A wave of pro-eating disorder sites showed up on the Internet between 2001 and 2003, prompting operators of several Internet hosts to try to remove such sites. But the study showed many pro-anorexia and bulimia sites remain accessible, with most patients finding them and pro-recovery sites through chance searches.
“I feel so sick eating as much as 800 calories,” a teen-age girl, who called herself “berlinium,” wrote in a pro-anorexia chat room on Monday.
“And then for some reason now when I try to purge, I can’t get anything up. I mean I am literally shoving my fingers past my tonsils, but nothing,” she said, adding that she had just bought a drug off the Internet to induce vomiting.
While half of the parents surveyed said they were aware of Web sites promoting eating disorders, only 28 percent had ever discussed these sites with their child and only 20 percent said they placed limits on their child’s Internet use.
Sometimes, you have to wonder why parents believe “their” kids couldn’t possibly do something stupid or self-destructive?
James Hill on the left:
i want sooooooo bad to b back were i started, 5’9 an a wopping 98 lb. i felt so great. now im a fat tub of lard.now, 5’9 138 lb
ddddddddaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnn it
i’m trying to be anorexic. i know that it’s stupid, but i can’t help it. and don’t be like “oh you can try to be anorexic, it’s a psychological disorder, blah blah blah.” i know that. and i don’t want to be skinny like that because i know it’s not pretty. but i can’t help wanting to weigh less. i’ve been trying to not eat, but it seems like i just eat more. when i started last week i weighed 95 and i weighed myself today and was 99.6 !! it makes me so sad. so i looked up how to be anorexic and i actually took advice on how to be a better anorexic. i’m 14 and 5’3″. i know i need help, but i don’t want to get it. i just want to lose like 10 pounds, then i’d stop.
chick is hawt. i’d tap that ass…
I’ve met prisoners in a jail and at mental hospitals who are required to eat or be forcefed and think that is evil. Any comments?
as muchh as i try and makee myselff sick it dosent workk , what shouldd i do ??
personally, i feel fat whenever i am around a girl shorter or skinnier than i am. i am not fat, i know i am not fat, and every time i am around someone who i think is more attractive than me i become overconsious of whatever i ate in the last twelve hours.
i don’t do it to become more attractive to other people – but to become more attractive to myself.
i know that i may have a problem, and that i can’t stop whenever i want to. i know it kills. i have researched the subject extensively.
i don’t think that it begins as a disease, but i think it becomes one.
people on sites like this that talk about how stupid these girls and boys are and how unattractive they are does not help them find peace.
at the same time, i think that these people who spend hours of their day arguing that it isn’t a disease are wasting their time. whether it is or is not a disease is not going to change the fact that it happens.
maddi im the same as you being anorexic would be the best thing ever.
You people who say that this is beauty are stupid. I’m 5’0. And I weigh 145. And I’m damn well proud. That looks disgusting. I saw the original pictures… but jeez… gross dude. I guess those of you who want to look like that will be seing Jesus a little earlier than planned.