Anorexics, bulimics learn tricks online — to perpetuate their illness!
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.
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?
Posted: Tue - December 5, 2006 at 11:44 AM