Eating Disorder Talk

A website previously unknown to me is about to become a part of my daily life. I am in the process of joining the Checkup Today network, a community based on the topics of various health issues, news and stories.

As far as I’m aware, I will be contributing in part to the Weight Loss & Nutrition category, but there are many other great areas of interest as well. Check out the site and see where it takes you!

Another link I’d like you to check out is the National Eating Disorder Association’s 3rd Annual Every Body is Beautiful Online Auction. The auction ends on December 2nd and includes all kinds of amazing stuff like tickets to live talk show tapings, vacations, celebrity memorabilia, books (like this one, that I’ve previously written about) and concert tickets. I’m panning on bidding on this shirt, so come check out what you can do to help, too. So far they’ve raised over $9,000 to go towards treatment referral, support and education.

Since the blogging boom has erased the dotcom fall-out with so many professional bloggers and telecommuters, new forms of journalism and education being are being embraced and self-publishing via eBooks is going through the roof. What does that mean? Anyone can write a how-to, market it within their niche and sell it for a minimal cost to themselves and their customer. People are snapping these things up! Downloading them up, more like.

So, a question for you, fine reader. If you had the opportunity to download, virtually anonymously, an eBook that taught you how to have an eating disorder, would you? I know some of you, who don’t comment, but still do read, are pro-ana or pro-mia - why hasn’t anyone told me if such a thing exists, where to get it, or why there isn’t a demand for it? Are you all too busy doing crunches and running miles? Email me if you’ve got something to say on the matter, it will not be discussed further on ED Talk outside of any comments you feel like leaving.

And enjoy your weekends, okay?

One of the blogs I regularly check my feed for, change therapy, has just completed a series detailing her results of a survey she posted. This survey asked readers what their opinions were regarding nude or scantily clad anorexics, keeping in mind that a large amount of the survey’s visitors had arrived via search engine results for topics such as “anorexic nudes” or “anorexic porn.”

This series was by no means a scientific study: it was very uncontrolled and only 106 of the 2,884 readers of the survey’s post actually submitted the survey. Of those 106, some 23% of respondents listed their weights as under average or very under average - leading me to the opinion that some of the images were liked for thinspiration purposes.

The reason I’m suggesting that you check out the series is this: it was surprising how many people responded in a for-anorexic-images manner, while still stating that it was not their ideal - in a sexual partner, especially. A number of respondents expressed concern or disgust at the images, yes, but seemingly healthy people were intrigued by the frailty, control and femininity of them.

Go see what I mean and let me know your own thoughts.

The survey
Survey results, Part 1
Survey results, Part 2
Survey results, Part 3
Survey summation

sex and anorexia, anorexic nudes, anorexic porn, feminine women, frail women, thin women, anorexics, psychological survey

Since you’re here for one of five reasons (according to last week’s poll), I must assume that you’ve stumbled onto or been referred to my new favourite blog, mamaVISION. You haven’t? Here’s your chance. Bookmark it and add it to your feed readers because this woman is informed, indignant, and supportive. She’s a pit bull wrapped in a cuddly infant snowsuit, licking your cheek.

Some of my favourite areas of her site include (in no specific order):

1. Her story. She was a model for six years and then quit and had to repair her disordered eating habits, self esteem and so on.
2. A recent email she received from Mike Smith. Who used stereotypical apples to oranges comparisons and was too scared to give his real name and a long-established email address!
3. A description of Social Anorexia and how it affects us.
4. Her audacity to tell parents to examine proana sites and proana videos on youtube. It’s wonderfully unabashed. Especially since it was following the outrage of…
5. Her posting on how to make your daughter anorexic - which basically lists the ways parents unknowingly instill disordered eating habits in their children, via rewarding, praise and modeling behaviours.

There’s lots more that I’d like to go into, but I won’t keep you when you could be over there!

Don’t forget to anonymously vote in this week’s poll!

Since coming to ED Talk, I’ve reviewed the top ranked websites in the areas of bulimia, binge eating disorder and anorexia. This week I’ve looked around Alexa’s subjects and listed the top five eating sites - most of them are in direct relation to eating disorders; one doesn’t focus only on them, but also on dieting, mental illness - the grandiose subject of unhealthiness.

I’ve chosen to not actually review these sites for a number of reasons, the first of which being my lack of bias, in light of my recent downturn. Other reasons? I’m aware of what a positive impact a few of these sites have had on people I’ve cared about; I don’t want to potentially have a hand turning someone else away from that positivity.

1. Something Fishy
2. Eating Disorders Resources
3. Dying to be Thin
4. Suite 101: Eating Disorders
5. After the Diet

I hope that these resources are a positive step for you, if you’re looking to plant your foot somewhere. On the opposite spectrum, my next top five list will be the most popular pro sites.

Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll!

I just came across this post via a forum referral to the author’s new blog. Looking back through the archives, this woman has made huge strides to recover from an overeating disorder with the main hope of becoming “normal” and “living a normal life, with normal habits.” She’s had huge personal success. And she’s still going, strong. Check out her mission and goals page, too.

The linked post above lists nine rules (aka “markers on the path to normal or intuitive eating.” She plans to expand upon each marker in the future, but her writing is succinct and well-orchestrated, leaving little question of her intention or meaning.

My favourite thing: each post ends with a few (3-5) positives. Here’s a bit from another of her posts:

Yesterday’s objective was to keep choosing to be satisfied, since I was essentially overwhelmed trying to do normal stuff and take care of my daughter as well. Poor thing has mononucleosis, so she’s really suffering right now.

In general, I fulfilled this objective quite well. “I’m satisfied with my satisfaction objective.” LOL

Please consider reading this page, especially if you are looking towards moving out of the eating disorder’s lifestyle, into your own.

Continuing onwards, week three’s top five is all about bulimia; weeks one and two can be found here and here.

1. Ask the Dietitian - First off, I was distracted from reviewing the site due to the damn top-right corner link to the site’s Healthy Body Calculator. It was pretty damn informative. Once I corrected the typo in the height category, that is. Back to the site. As the name indicates, it’s more of a Q and A area where people (I’m assuming visitors to the home site) are asking how to help friends and themselves, clarifying the differences between EDs and even asking for advice regarding firing a potentially bulimic employee whose work performance was horrendous (in part due to the bulimic cycle). Not bad, but I don’t know that it’s been updated in a while. Just check out the calculator and read the rest if you’re looking for camaraderie.

2. Mental Health -Provides links on the American and European descriptions, child and adolescent EDs from the US Surgeon General, diagnosis, treatment, research and other articles. No information provided on the actual page itself. Useful if you’ve got time to kill, opening page, after page. What I find moderately disturbing is the link in the sidebar, “diagnose yourself” - that phrase is a double-edged sword. The link itself is for signup to a 6 or 12-month computerized “decisionbase,” that reportedly tracks personality and psychiatric disorders. Can you say yay, for promoting hypochondria?

3. Healthy Place - The title of this site is Beat Bulimia, giving a positive first impression. Provides links in the sidebar and header to a community forum - also good. Sidebar also contains links about intervention, the author, articles and a newsletter. The main page is a letter touching on the lack of glamour of bulimia vs anorexia - speaking my language; good. This sums it up:

On the Beat Bulimia site, we’ll be talking about the causes of bulimia, what you need to do to recover from bulimia, and how your family and friends can help. Our goal here is to bring bulimics out of hiding and form a virtual community where we can help each other.

4. Payson Road - Well, we have a fuchsia header. And a black background. That’s it. If you Google it, you come up with a link to the Homepage which has a bunch more stuff in equally annoying colours. Which I have not the patience to look at or review because they lost me at the black screen. Hello? Could you not simply put a redirect link?

5. Selfhelp Magazine - This is only linking to an article written by a counsellor. The article thinks aloud about this therapist views initial contact and treatment with a patient showing signs of bulimia. She includes some rather insulting and stereotypical presentment types and explains how she doesn’t exert control over the patient’s binge-purging, choosing to spend time expanding and deepening the patient-therapist relationship. A little too Hallmark for me, but hey, I’m one of those permanent-bubble types of people.

Next week, we’ll be delving into the top ten ranked sites of all things ED-related.

Last week, I reviewed the top five anorexia sites, as listed by Alexa.

This week, as promised, is my take on the top sites devoted to binge eating disorder (BED).

1. Teen’s Health - Well, the site is targeted towards teens, making it a very easy read. Some of the information is contradictory: people engaged in a binge often eat past feeling full vs. theories about the hypothalamus’ failure to provide a message of fullness. There is some information as to the types of help needed in the case of BED, such as nutritionists to provide a realistic eating plan. The page also has tabs to the right wherein readers can look to other related articles and resources. But overall, this is very introductory - though quite well put together, when considered for teens’ reading.

2. Weight-control Information Network - Provides answers to the questions of risk, prevalence, symptoms, complications, types of therapy relevant to BED. Vague answers about causes and weight loss attempts are also tackled. The bottom of the single page provides a general message titled “you are not alone” and contact information for National Eating Disorder Association and Academy for Eating Disorders. Very safe website: provides medically based facts and doesn’t waste very much time theorizing on anything unproven. One good thing is that there’s a chart which profiles 10 programs in the United States - including the program type, treatment used and age of patients taken. Three additional reading resources are also provided: the oldest was published in 1959; the newest, 2003.

3. athealth.com - My favourite, so far, the main page is a Q and A with the director and a psychologist of the Acoria Eating Disorders Treatment Center in Cincinnati. The interview is very candid, allowing for theorizing and bluntness. This was refreshing, considering how much BED resources are timid and people-pleasing. The sidebar provides newsletters, a lookup for practitioners and treatment centres, self-help and book store sections, a resource centre and featured articles. Very reader-friendly, while being overtly honest. Just my kind of place.

4. a weight out - Since the focus of most of the entire site is overeating, both compulsive and emotional, it’s hard to look at this page as anything directly related to an eating disorder resource. There is a short write about about “when it’s a binge eating disorder” and links on the side bar to symptoms and signs, dieting, child obesity and confessions. Also sidebarred is a link called “Beyond Fen-Phen,” which was the article published in January 1998 by a Cincinnati reporter who had struggled with emotional eating and diet pills. A little old, don’t you think? This site made BED seem as though it was a reason to diet, not a severe eating disorder.

5. Healthy Place - A community devoted to eating disorders. The link above will take you to a transcripted interview between a moderator, audience and author/recovered binge eater, Jane Latimer. I recommend it because it was inspiring and informative. There are, however, very few external links, excepting Latimer’s site and Overeaters Anonymous. All sidebarred items are the usual, but again only internal “Healthy Place” links. I find it semi-disturbing that they’ve cornered the information market, apparently.

Overall, very disappointing but predictable. Overeating and BED have long been stereotyped against. Few people seem to consider binge eating as serious as the other big two disorders. Alarming. Too many people tie it in with being overweight or obese, not as a serious mental condition. Odd, when you consider how many complications and life-long health issues that can be incurred from life with BED.

Is it just another indication of our society’s obsession with thin? To the outside world, anorexia is obviously about being as thin as possible; bulimia is about halting weigh gain due to gorging, via purging in some form. These two are specific methods of getting or staying thin, whereas BED is (again, to the uninvolved eye) about gaining weight from a lack of self-control. Approximately 1 in 142 people suffer from BED, 1 in 1000 from anorexia and 1 in 181 of bulimia (stats according to wrong diagnosis)- yet we are obsessed with the lower “ranking” diseases.

Why do you think that is?

Next week, I’ll review the top five sites related to Bulimia. That should be quite different than this week’s!

BED, overeating, compulsive eating, obesity

Thin by Lauren Greenfield was the first book about eating disorders that I picked up in a long time. Truth be told, after my last commitment to “get better,” I left thirty-odd books at my father’s house, away from my prying hands and roving eyes. I was at Chapters when I saw the cover (marked with a 30% off sticker), buying things that struck my fancy in a manic hardcover jaunt. I realized that it was majorly a photographic book and the side of me that denies sought to buy it in the hopes of having something “taboo and artistic” in my house. I suppose I might have put it next to Generation S.L.U.T.

Honestly, I flipped through it’s pages, trying to be nonchalant. My boyfriend glanced at a few pages with me and gasped at the awkwardly thin senior, he piqued my competitive side when noticing one girl who was much thinner than he’d ever known me to be, and he made me proud when he asked why one girl was even in the book - I had been much thinner than her.

My friend saw it on my coffee table and mentioned seeing the documentary on Showcase. How intense and at some points disgusting and others scintillating it was. She said that from what she had seen, the patient on the cover had been very thin and unhealthy and nowhere near my size (then 5′6″ and about 105lbs.) - she was that thin. Now, this is one of my best friends, so I know that she did not intentionally mean to send me a message like that - but our continuing debate about it, where I may have even lied about the girl’s stats in order to deflate my own, lead me to a discovery.

It was beginning again and the book was a trigger for me. I returned it within the week.

There is an intro to the documentary, that I found on YouTube. You’re not me, so if you’re interested in picking it up, it’s available on many bookseller’s sites, such as Amazon.

youtube, thin, hbo, showcase, lauren greenfield, Renfrew Center, eating disorders, trigger, Generation S.L.U.T., relapse

Each week, I’ll provide my take on the top five websites, as rated by Alexa. No, I’m not playing favourites, we’re starting with Anorexia because it’s first in the alphabet; next Tuesday, I’ll cover the top five sites relating to Binge Eating Disorder.

1. Anorexic Web: This site is owned by a wiccan who suffered from an eating disorder for seven years. Very graphically based, it’s apparently been operating since 1999. It’s simplistic, artistic and leaden with poetry. Regardless, it is full of positive messages (both wiccan and not), pictures, warnings and disclaimers. A little too blessed (be) for my taste.

2. Mental Health: Contains description links such as to facetheissue’s movie, American and European diagnostics, the US Surgeon General’s report, and eMedicine. Also includes diagnosis, treatment, research and literature. Very bare-bones and does not seem to have been updated for some time.

3. Family Doctor: Vague, stereotypical and oversimplified - this site reminds me of something I might have read at the early stages of the disease, before I realized how all-consuming and complex eating disorders really are.

4. Revolution Health: Another (at first glance) introductory lesson on what anorexia is and it’s treatment. Upon further perusal, this site is very easy to navigate, leads to a lot of clicking on individual links and contains resources for treatment and coping.

5. Ana Death: First impression: a site written for those seeking recovery, by someone recently recovered. You can read her story, which reads more like a journal entry than a timeline. But other than that, I ran out of patience when trying to navigate away from the homepage. Why? Most of the links no longer exist. Does this mean that recovery is over? I’ll never know, it seems.