NEDIC is very concerned about the growth in "pro-eating disorder" websites. Pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites:
- Promote eating disorders, particularly anorexia, as a lifestyle choice rather than as a deadly illness.
- Provide harmful tips and techniques on how to lose weight.
- Suggest ways to deceive loved ones.
- Are targeted toward young girls and women.
- Encourage young girls and women to continue their eating disorder.
The people who create these websites have an eating disorder. Creating these websites allows them to:
- Falsely believe that they are okay.
- Falsely believe that having an eating disorders is a choice, and that other people support their choice.
These sites are full of the distortions and denials that are part of suffering from an eating disorder.
The websites are also dangerous for a number of additional reasons:
- They may encourage people to do things that are harmful.
- The sites make disordered eating seem normal.
- The sites make eating disorders look glamorous.
- The sites encourage people to see starving bodies as beautiful.
- Some sites warn people not to enter the site if they do not have an eating disorder. These warnings make people curious. They make people more likely to visit the site.
- People who are just trying food and weight control as a way to control their emotions can learn harmful ideas and actions.
Eating disorders are devastating conditions. Eating disorders develop because people do not have ways to deal with other stressful issues in their lives. They are not a choice!
