Most haven't listened to Neal and his Sickness. Being pre-occupied with
with images of the way others look can be a SICKNESS. If it really
bothers you, it probable means you need help.

Here is a News Week article about it, just yesterday: 12/7/2006

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Drink ice-cold water ("your body has to burn calories to keep your
temperature up") and hot water with bullion cubes ("only 5 calories a
cube, and they taste wonderful"). When a food craving strikes, give
yourself a manicure ("applying extra layers of slow-drying polish. It
will keep your hands occupied"). These kinds of tips are common fare in
the growing world of "pro-ana" (pro-anorexia) and "pro-mia"
(pro-bulimia) Web sites. More than 200 such sites now cater to the
estimated .5 to 1 percent of adolescent and adult women who are anorexic
and to the 1 to 2 percent who are bulimic.
Well intended or not, the sites are "not benign," says Dr. Rebecka
Peebles, a specialist in adolescent medicine at Stanford University's
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. In "Surfing for Thinness: A Pilot
Study of Pro-Eating Disorder Web Site Usage in Adolescents with Eating
Disorders," published this week in Pediatrics, the journal of the
American Academy of Pediatrics, she and her colleagues reported the
results of a survey of eating-disorder patients and their parents. They
found that patients who used pro-eating-disorder sites were sick longer
and spent less time doing schoolwork. Patients who used both
pro-eating-disorder and pro-recovery sites were admitted to the hospital
more times than nonusers.
Many experts find the pro-eating-disorder sites appalling. "It's one of
the few times in history that someone has come out and said that a very
dangerous illness is a good idea, and here's how to do it," says
Christopher Athas, vice president of the National Association of
Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. "They talk about First
Amendment rights. But this is like shouting fire ... These people with
these sites claim that they are representing a lifestyle, but they are
representing a dangerous illness." Researchers have demonstrated that
eating disorders can lead to anxiety, depression, alcoholism, substance
abuse, self-mutilation and suicide.
But the pro-ana and pro-mia sites, which the study says are more
numerous than pro-recovery sites, tend to gloss over that kind of
information-and the fact that people with anorexia are more than 56
times more likely than their peers to commit suicide, says Cynthia
Bulik, director of the eating-disorders program at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "People who are posting to these sites
are accomplices to suicide."
Such sites can interfere with treatment, especially during the first
year, when anorexics are at high risk for relapse, says Bulik. "It's a
high-risk cue, or a trigger," she says. "I don't think anorexia nervosa
is an addiction, but these sites have the ability to pull them into
something that's familiar and comfortable. You want your supportive
treatment team to be the strong voice in your head.
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It is a good thing to remember; 'You are a one of a kind; just like
everybody else.'


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