Monday, November 9, 2009

11/9

Jennifer Davis, a clinician at Huntercombe Hospital in Edinburgh, UK, asserts that Pro-Ana websites do not by themselves cause Anorexia. According to Davis, people who are looking at these websites already suffer from Anorexia; if they did not have Anorexia, they would not be looking at the website in the first place. That is her clinical opinion, influenced by statements that her patients gave. This may have been the case for her patients; however, I challenge her claim with a statement from a different individual suffering from Anorexia Nervosa. As I was browsing through one of the pro-Ana websites, I came across a post made by a 17 year old female who happened to list her stats in that post (as do most of girls). According to this female, her highest weight was 180 pounds; at the height of 5’7, this put her at a BMI of 28.2. This female was clearly not anorexic to begin with—she, in fact, overweight and only 1.7 BMI units from being considered obese. Her current weight, after being a member of this community for 7 months, is 110 pounds—with a BMI of 17.2. What if this young woman is not an exception? What if thousands of other eating disorders develop in this way? I am aware that I cannot make this causal inference; this is not a case study, nor an experimental design. However, overlooking the fact that this is a possibility would be, in my opinion, complete ignorance and neglect.

1 comment:

  1. I would argue that these sites most likely make someone's ED worse by giving them weight control techniques that they might not have been aware of prior to visiting these sites. Certainly research indicates that one of the consequences of a hospitalization for ED is to increase the individual's repertoire of disordered behavior.

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