Eating Disorders
Pro Mia Sites
By Lori Henry
Apr 6, 2008

Pro Bulimia websites are encouraging individuals to be sick and luring those who need support.

Pro Bulimia websites are becoming more and more common on the internet. These portals are for individuals who want to “choose” bulimia as a lifestyle, rather than a disease.

They replace traditional group support by offering these women and men a place to share their despair, weight and frustrations. What they offer, instead of support to get better, is encouragement to stay sick.

Steve Bloomfield, the Eating Disorders Association's head of communications, said "The danger of these sites is that often young people with an eating disorder don't understand what is happening to them.

"The great danger is that the people who construct these sites often have no idea of the terrible medical complications that come- the danger of losing your fertility, of developing osteoporosis - for some people if you resist treatment.

"About one in five people who don't get appropriate treatment die prematurely, so they are literally killing people."

Even more dangerous are the chat rooms and discussion boards attached to these sites. In them, people ask each other what names of drugs they use to induce vomitting, tips on how to purge unnoticed, what celebrities to watch for “thinspiration”, and advice on how to starve yourself without “giving in” to hunger.

Millions of young people, especially, log onto these sites and stay there because of the community they feel they have become a part of. What they don’t think about is the danger they’re doing to their health by treating their bodies as if they’re unworthy of food.

The distorted minset that these individuals are sharing with the public is scary. But can we ban these sites because they are harmful, or would we be crossing the line of freedom of speech?

This article first appeared on Suite101.com.