Pro-Eating Disorder Websites Studied For First Time
Websites that promote eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have been around for a long time, encouraging men and women to engage in unhealthy disordered eating behaviors. In order to get a better idea of how these websites work and who they target, university researchers recently conducted the first large-scale analysis of pro-eating disorder websites.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looked at 180 websites that are characterized as pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia. Researchers looked at each website’s design, interactive features, themes, images, weight loss tips and information on recovery from eating disorders. Researchers analyzed how harmful they thought a site would be to visitors.
Here’s what the researchers discovered about the pro-eating disorder websites they studied:
• 24 percent were perceived as being very harmful
• About 80 percent had interactive features, such as calorie counters or discussion groups
• 85 percent featured materials encouraging thinness, including photos of thin models
• 83 percent had suggestions on how to engage in disordered eating behaviors
While these websites can be dangerous to people who have eating disorders, the majority of them point out that eating disorders are diseases. Less than 20 percent of the sites showed eating disorders as a lifestyle choice, and more than one-third had information on recovering from an eating disorder.
“These sites are fairly diverse,” Rebecka Peebles, MD, senior author of the new study, said in an article on the Stanford School of Medicine’s website. “Some sites have very hard-core information about how to intensify your eating disorder, some have a lot of pro-recovery content and many have a mix of both.”
Because these websites are online, they are available to anyone who engages in disordered eating or has a curiosity about it. They can be dangerous to both people who have eating disorders and young people who are beginning to become more self-aware and concerned with their bodies.
“If these sites make us uncomfortable, the focus at the public health level should be asking how we can reach and treat more people struggling with disordered eating, and how we as providers can become more comfortable with the difficult feelings that people with eating disorders feel,” Peebles said. “Right now, many patients are going to the web to express those feelings, instead of handling them through traditional models of care, such as psychotherapy.”
Getting the Right Kind of Support
If you do have an eating disorder, pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites are not where you should go to get support. These websites may only worsen disordered eating patterns and validate your behaviors.
Instead, you should turn to an eating disorder professional in therapy or at a residential center for eating disorders to help you get your disordered eating under control. Find supportive websites that can help you to work on your recovery from eating disorders and that encourage you to have a healthy relationship with food and with yourself.
