I was googling Coffees affects on eating disorders and found a site that made me ILL.....this site (im not telling the name of it if you want to read it yourself google how to become a better anorexic) gives TIPS on how to become anorexic!!!! its giving TIPS on how to be a BETTER anorexic.....is there anything we can do about these distrubing sites????? I was searching for TIPS on changing my bulimic behavior (seeing if caffeine adds to my urge to binge) and found tips on becoming a BETTER ED sufferer this just makes me so sad......

Yuck! I've also heard of a website that promotes suicide- how to do it, etc. It's hard to imagine what evil can lurk out there.

Pro-ana sites are not uncommon, unfortunately. It's so sad.
Occasionally we'll get a new member who's pro-ana, and it's very disturbing because we do not support such unhealthy behaviour here. I wish we could help them... they're on a clear path to self-destruction.

Isn't the Pro-Ana crap the reason the teen forum was closed down? B/c too many pro-ana and pro-mia kids were trying to get tips?

That was one of the reasons, Marilyn.
We could now have a huge discussion on the fashion industry's influence on the consumer. In particular, women.

Wow! You know I'm all for free speech but thats one thing thats going on my list of things to block when my children are old enough to surf!!!!

Yeah, there are some horrible sites out there, one in particular, mostly pro-ana but had a small pro-mia section, was the focus for a piece of coursework i did last year... Truely horrible.

It's difficult to have a pro-ana friend too, I worried non stop about her. (We've drifted since then)

I knew what this thread was about before I even opened it. I visited those sites a long time ago, and I found them to be horrifying. They need to be named "How you can die faster from your disease." I wouldn't be surprised if someone has died as a direct cause of these websites.

As someone who has endured all the aspects of eating disorders for over 50 years (from severe anorexia to morbid obesity...and battled bulimia since I was 7) it really frightens me to see that these sites are trying to "normalize" the behaviours.....that being anorexic is just a health choice......and is not part of another mental health issue.....

I love the internet but really worry about the unsupervised nature of the medium.

It's particularly worrying when you think about the fact that some pre-teens/ early teens have fixations about their bodies- many grow out of it, but if they're exposed to this kind of material that promotes EDs as "lifestyle choices" not diseases, surely they're much more likely to suffer from said EDs?

I remember a newspaper (tabloid) over here ran a campaign to get one of the worst shut down, and it works- the ISP took action. However, shutting one website is the tip of the iceberg, and for each site that gets closed, I should imagine at least one more will open.

Jumping in the pool with both feet firmly between my teeth but I'll throw my opinion out there.
I have had problems from anorexia, bulimia, overeating, binging - blah blah blah. I personally don't think the "pro-ana" sites tell anyone how to be that way. If you lean that way you don't need someone to tell you how to not eat. Same with bulimia. To my way of thinking it is like if I go to a beer website I will not learn to be an alcoholic. It is something inside. Just because I read it does not mean I will be it. I have seen peoples avi's (on here) have skinny women on them with "you are what you eat", "perfect", "someday" etc. etc. on them and those are basically "pro-ana" icons. We look at these skinny celebrities and think that is what we are supposed to look like, with no though that those women either starve themselves or work out for hours at a time. I have went to some "pro-ana" sites and some of them are obviously little girls with waaay to much time and not enough sense, but others of them flat out say " Are you stupid? Do you want to die?" and make it plain they do not and will not tell you how to be "ana", they flat out tell you that Anorexia is a disease not a cute little slang word. I have found support at some forums for eating disorders labeled "pro-ana" that are no more "pro-ana" then this website. I hate to see them all condemned just because someone calls them “pro-ana” but I also admit that some of the ones with tips are just frightening and dangerous. I do think that parents should be well aware of what their kids do online to make sure they don't see the scary sites, but they are not all bad.
I can hear the worms climbing out of the can now, sigh.

Oh, well, ED- websites.....I saw a few of them as well. I really donīt like them at all.
I think there are dangerous- mostly for younger people. It gives them the "How- to"- tipps. But are they more dangerous as the normal TV- programm or a Hollywood movie? Most women there are so underweight, a few decades ago (or in a different culture) you would think that they are severly ill. Or very poor. These things setting the tone, telling the viewer that looking anorectic is cool, desireable.

Uh, where is my point....you know, itīs not that websites, itīs societys standards which are praising the ideal of the starving women. If it wouldnīt be that way, these websites would loose their "appeal".
You know, there are no "Pro- alcoholic" websites outthere (to my knowledge). And why not? Because alcoholism is a disease (as EDs), an illness (as EDs) and itīs UGLY.
Anorecia is a disease, but the symptom of the disease is sexy and desireable (as told by society).
Or are there any pro- binge eating or pro- staying fat websites outthere?

And as someone said: there are even "real" suicide websites outthere. Giving advice who to kill yourself- IN DETAIL. I read a few of them, and they are really spooky and dangerous.

Well, in my opinion, label them who ever you want, but when a few addicts come together and share their opinion and they are not on the road to recovery or the group is not moderated, there is always the "oh, hey, she did it THAT WAY! Interesting!"- thing going on.

Bravelilchicken: I have to agree with you about the avatar topic. Itīs hard for me to understand why someone struggeling with weight issues and probably a ED has a anorectic- photoshopped- woman as avatar.
Well, no matter what I do, I would never look like a woman who ate nearly nothing for the last years, did 4 hours workout per day and whose pic was manipulated in a computer programm. And that isnīt my goal at all.

Okay, let me jump in again.

I absolutely agree that an ED is triggered by some innate, pre-existing problem within ourselves, BUT it can be triggered by many different things, possibly a visit to a pro-ana website could be one of them. I'm not saying the trigger wouldn't have been pulled eventually anyway by something else, but I believe a picture of a starved woman definitely could be a trigger. And another point I'd like to make is that there are MANY different tricks/tips that these girls can learn from these websites, from how to better hide their disorders to using different instruments to help purge. I know I could give countless "tips" on how to throw up. I'm not even going to go into that, but there are plenty of ways to make purging easier, and that's the advice that many bulimics go on the hunt for. And of course you don't have to tell an anorectic how to starve herself, but she certainly wants advice on how to hide it from family, doctors, school, etc.

And I agree with Kate about the other pro-addictive websites. I was just thinking (before I got back on here) that there are no websites that encourage smokers to remain smokers, and no forums devoted to give advice to smokers to not buckle under the pressure of an increasingly smoke-free society.

I also want to say that I was absolutely OBSESSED (and so was my sister) with anything involving eating disorders and we were just absolutely fascinated by them before our disorders came into fruition. I knew everything about bulimia before I actually became bulimic. I was reading books and encyclopedia articles on the subject (this was before my family got internet). I remember at a very young age (about 10 or 11) looking up "bulimia" in the dictionary, so I know it was built-in early. I think knowledge of the disorder doesn't directly bring about the disorder, but it can certainly act as a catalyst (which I think it did for me). And I was reading academic articles, not visiting pro-ED websites, which actually encourage the behaviors.

As for the condemnation of all these websites, I can't really comment, because I haven't made a visit to any of these websites in years. So I don't know if all of them are bad, but I know some of them are really bad. I don't really feel like looking any up, because I know I'll come across something I don't know, and it will be very bad.

As for the avatar pics, I 100% agree. Anyways, my role models (as far as a physical body is concerned) are healthier, curvy women and they always have been. I have many celebrity inspirations, and my number 1 is Scarlett Johannson. And another one is Shakira. And another one Kate Winslet (although she did dwindle a bit). But do you see the theme? I like their bodies, I would want mine to look like theirs, although it isn't ever going to look as good as theirs.

Me, too.

Me, too.