Ana & Mia websites
Although
these sites have been around for quite a bit longer the media has paid attention to them in the past 7 months. After nearly
20 years of working with clients suffering from eating disorders (which are life threatening disorders) and their family
members it has been especially disheartening to see the development of websites promoting and encouraging disordered eating
patterns. They do so under extreme denial and often insist that their sites are about the "Quest for Perfection"
allowing men or women who participate on the sites the delusion that they are moving to greatness and almost God-like status.
A recent article written by Cynthia Billhartz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch describes that the individual who visits
the home page of Ana Shapeshifter's site is greeted as follows: "This is a gathering point for sentient individuals
who are working to cause changes to occur in body and in conformity to will. There are no victims here, and maturity is
measured in the acceptance of personal responsibility, not the number of birthdays survived." The site goes on to explain
that "this is not a place for the faint-hearted, weak, hysterical, or those looking to be rescued. This is not a place
for those who bow to consensus definitions of reality or who believe in the cancerous fallacy that there is any other authority
on earth besides their own incontrovertibly self-evident, inherent birthright to govern themselves."
According
to the webmaster of the Ana Shapeshifter site who reports eating fewer that 500 calories a day her mission in developing
the site was as follows: "To provoke thought and illustrate alternate points of view on this and all related issues,
direct or tangential; to provide positive and useful guidance through quality information to those choosing this lifestyle,
as well as a point of contact for networking and support; to advocate for the rights involved in freedom of choice about
one's body and life; to give a coherent and intelligent voice to these issues, and to experiences and feelings often complicated
and difficult to express, particularly for those of younger age among us, and above all, through a mutually shared interest
point, to reach out to a harassed, misunderstood, maligned,, under-appreciated, disenfranchised, marginalized people-group
in our society and offer them the ideological and practical tools for self-empowerment and self- reliance."
There certainly is a possibly psychotic and obsessive cult-like feel to these website promoting and encouraging individuals
to put their health and ultimately their lives at risk. It is common knowledge that a significant number of eating disorder
individuals include in their obsessional thought processes about food, weight, and other disordered eating behaviors an
almost insatiable thirst for information concerning their obsessions. These sites appear to promote the development and
sustaining of eating disorder behaviors by feeding that obsessional thirst through information and through the actual support
of eating disorder behaviors.
It must be stated at this time that eating disorder behaviors, especially heavy
restricting and starvation produce very distorted thought processes often psychotic in nature. Studies have been done on
individuals who were deprived of food and these studies showed a radical increase especially in obsessive-type qualities
about food itself. These sites may feed into those extremely obsessive qualities somehow giving permission to the possibly
vulnerable unsuspecting individual that his or her behavior is not only OK but something to be proud of as an accomplishment.
And the proof lies in the support offered by others attempting to accomplish similar demises. They often relieve pressures
from the individuals family and friends concerns regarding their disordered eating behaviors. Denial is the #1 symptom noted
in eating disorders.
After working with eating disorders for as many
years as I have I know that they are "illnesses of the soul." The pain I see my clients hold is incredible. They
are not disorders of self esteem but rather those of deep incredibly painful shame. They are about the sense of being somehow
inherently flawed and inadequate as a person for which there is no repair. The only hope they hold on to is a sense that
if they look OK externally that somehow no one will notice the flaws the individual is thoroughly convinced they possess.
The Eating Disorder Recovery Center (Addictions & More) will never support any exploitation of its visitors
by allowing any pro- eating disorder behavior. This type of behavior is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered from an
eating disorder and had the courage to recover. Recovery is the freedom to be yourself. Freedom from the burdening shame
of cognitive distortions long held and believed as truths.
Be gentle with yourselves,
Debbi
Kuehnel, LCSW © 2002
