Comment on Anorexic community sites

I had to post this here because it outraged me so much!!!! Sorry but I am just extremely passionate about this topic...
It is my response to a posting I found on kcb201 - n5681065 's blog...... Wednesday, April 9, 2008 which said......

How do online communities organise themselves?
"Firstly, it is probably important to consider the question: why do online communities organise themselves? Put simply, there are so many people and so much material on the internet that it is impossible to utilise it all. So how do we make use of the availability of what and who is most useful to us?Someone I know, who works in nutrition, recently said to me that the fact that the internet has provided a space for all sorts of "thinspire" and "pro-Anna" groups is not actually such a bad thing. He claimed that it provided a space a group of our community, who are often isolated, to feel connected once again. As a result it also provided a space where the problems faced by the individuals were put on the table. The truth and honesty that comes out of such a virtual community may actually assist professionals treating eating disorders to properly understand what they are dealing with.

In response Mary Jane (that's me) said...

This post made me SICK!!!! Sorry, the majority of it is good, but the comment about online Anorexic "thinsiration" groups being a good thing is an absolute OUTRAGE. I have suffered from chronic Anorexia for 21 years(since I was 13, I am now 34) and I think these sites are disgusting! One of my major reasons for studying Media and Communications is to find a solution to be able to have these websites shut down. If these websites had have been around when I was 13 I know I would have used them to make myself even sicker than I was and considering I have almost died several times I would probably be dead. I guarentee these sites have contributed to deaths - Anorexia is an insanely complex disorder and HAS to be taken serioiusly!!!! It CANNOT be seen as a "lifestyle choice" as these sites profess - it is a deadly and desperate illness - with the highest mortality rate of any mental illness - and those girls who call it a lifestyle are very sick. I know this because I was one of them and I am now in the later stages of recovery - I lived in the depths of the illness for 20 years - I look back and see how distorted and irrational my thoughts were when I was in the depths of extreme malnutrition - your brain just doesn't function normally. For a nutritionist to say these sites are good makes my blood boil!! I am the FIRST to tell you how EXTREMELY ISOLATING and LONELY anorexia is, but these sites are NOT the solution!!!! Creating a "community" for anorexics just enocourages the illness - I know that the hundreds of hours I have spent in hospital wards specifically for people with eating disorders made me MUCH WORSE. Since the age of 21 I decided I would never go back to those eating disorder clinics and have been treated in general medical wards for the past 13 years. While neither of these treatment options were adequate, being around other people with eating disorders was actually counterproductive - we never encouraged or talked about how to get better - it was all about how to deceive nurses and doctors and how to lose more weight. These sites do the same thing for girls not in hospital - they share tricks for deceiving parents and friends about how much they are eating, talk about how much exercise they should be doing and teach each other how to throw up... and BELIEVE ME, when you are that sick you will do ANYTHING to be just that bit thinner - even when you are on death's door. People who suffer from Anorexia are characteristically very high achievers and competitive by nature - communities such as these only encourage competition to be the thinnest and the sickest - something I know I always felt a need to achieve even if it killed me. In addition to Media and Comms I am studying Public Health and it is my BIGGEST goal to set up an Eating Disorders treatment centre here in Brisbane - with a totally new approach from the perspective of someone who knows all the "tricks" and reasons why these girls are so hard to treat. After 20 years of searching for a treatment program which actually HELPED me rather than making me WORSE I know how DESPERATELY NEEDED this is. I have worked with more dieticians/nutritionsts than I could count and admittedly, when you are in the depths of anorexia it is quite pointless to see them..... Anorexics know more about calories and fat etc. than most nutritionsts - it is a TOTAL OBSESSION. When you are THAT driven to lose weight NO advice from a dietician is going to make you eat... The issue is NOT needing to know what to eat - Anorexics know what they SHOULD eat, they are just ABSOLUTELY PETRIFIED to do it - SERIOUSLY, it feels like someone is trying to force you to eat POISON!!!! - THAT is HOW SCARY food feels....... You can tell that nutritionist he can talk to me if he wants to learn more about the illness - PLEASE DON'T accept that girls are KILLING themselves just for your educational benefit. I am very, VERY SAD and disheartened to have heard that someone (especially in such a profession as nutrition) could possibly take that attitutude!!!! VERY IGNORANT!!!! MJ