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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
A quick review of the pro-anorexia communities hosted by Yahoo conveys this blithe attitude in abundance. There's Pro-Anorexia, for "People who are/want to be anorexic." There's a club called aNOreXiC WaNNa B and The Thinner Is the Winner, "a club for people who strive to be thin." Pro-anorexics can join Anorexia for Life, My Friend Ana, Pro Ana Sanctuary, StickThinPixies, Always Anorexia, love ana, I Love You to the Bone, Fading to Nothing, Bonelovers, the truly specialized Pro Ana Hanson Fans and dozens of other pro-anorexic clubs. Many have literally thousands of members, which isn't surprising: According to widely accepted figures provided by the American Anorexia Bulimia Association, there are more than 5 million anorexics in the U.S., where 3 percent of all women have eating disorders. One percent of all teenage girls are anorexic; 10 percent of those will die from the disorder, and a third will probably suffer from it for the rest of their lives.
Not all of these clubs blatantly advocate anorexia as an acceptable "lifestyle," but all of them are filled with members who will happily offer tips on how to become a "better" anorexic. And the best anorexic, of course, is a dead anorexic: In a sense, pro-anorexia is pro-suicide for at least 10 percent of its supplicants. As Charity, a 15-year-old pro-anorexic from England, fatalistically puts it, "The winner dies."
The advice that the (mostly) women and girls in these clubs offer is often horrifying: There's advice on caffeine pills, diet pills, laxatives, pills that prevent the absorption of fat and how to avoid getting blood in your vomit. You can find out which foods contain "negative calories," read up on a hundred different diets and find out how to hide food so your family doesn't know you're not eating. (Hide food up your sleeves! Feed your pet! Disguise a Jenny Craig bar in a Snickers wrapper!) There are pat "excuses" for when your friends and family bug you about eating: "The doctor said I shouldn't have too much fat." "I'm vegan/vegetarian/on a diet." "I can't eat hot stuff."
A popular pastime is the group fast, in which a group of pro-anorexics stops eating for days at a time in a show of solidarity and support. There are many "lose 20 pounds in a month" clubs as well. Pro-anas enthusiastically relate advice and encouragement for long-term hunger strikers, skipping the part about an inevitable trip to the hospital, if not the morgue. One poster received this response when she queried a pro-ana mailing list on how to fast for three months: "3 months? You're the best anorexic ever!"
Indeed, the pro-ana online community is not just about support, it's about competition. As Lynn Ponton, professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and author of the upcoming book "Risking the Body," explains, "The girls are not only collaborative, but competitive: They want to be the thinnest."
There are, of course, many posts in which sad, confused and lonely girls (and the majority of pro-anas do seem to be teenage girls) bare their souls about their unhappiness -- tales of divorced parents, broken hearts, feelings of isolation and suicide attempts. And for these emotional rants they receive lots of loving support in response. But the majority of the chatter is nuts-and-bolts: diet tips, advice and "triggering" pictures (a medical term that the self-conscious pro-anas have reclaimed for their own use): photographs of skinny models and celebrities that inspire anorexics in their quests. Particularly popular are photo galleries of Christina Aguilera, Kate Moss, Posh Spice, Calista Flockhart, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jennifer Aniston and any number of itsy-bitsy models.
Besides the mailing lists and bulletin boards, there are countless pro-ana home pages where anorexic girls offer yet more tips and photographs, plus food diaries and inspirational advice. Charity even offers an advice column. (To "Terri," who writes, "I just haven't been able to control my cravings ... I'm so, so huge. I'm 5'5" tall, and I weigh 105 lbs. I can't bare it," Charity offers this inspirational advice: "Go to http://www.uglypeople.com and look at all the ugly people. Most of the females are ugly and FAT.")
Many of the tips are the same kind of diet advice that you might glean from any women's magazine -- "Take a sip of water in between every bite. It will fill you up twice as fast as just eating" -- but it takes on a disturbing sheen when adapted to help girls who weigh 110 pounds reach their goal of 86 pounds.
There are plenty of visitors to the pro-ana Web sites who are healthy girls looking for ways to shed a few pounds before prom night. But the true pathology of the disease is evident in the more extreme weight loss "thinspiration," stuff you'd never see in Self or Cosmopolitan: "Play with your metabolism. Take 800 cals one day and starve the next ... the next day you can take 700 cals and the next you can take 300 cals, you'll see your weight drop quite a bit." "Sugar-free gum is one of the best things. Not only will you trick your mouth, but you can stop the stomach rumblies for a while chewing it." And: "Try and eat if you get very sick. If you don't you have a high risk of fainting and letting them worry about you. If they worry you lose the game."
