Comments on: The Truth About Online Anorexia – Thurs 9 April 9PM ITV1

By: louise

louise — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:16:12 +0000

These websites are very unlikeley to make non anorexic girls, anorexic.
also they are the only form of support anorexic people can get and feel safe with.
half of anorexic sites ARE PROMOTING recovery and healthy eating now.
louise -14years old-

By: KES

KES — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:56:15 +0000

i don’t fully understand this issue. i am not a sufferer, though like most girls, i like to lose weight tho i maybe don’t do it in the best way. so this documentary concerned me. what i couldn’t get my head round was the idea of beauty. when ppl look in the mirror, everyone’s image is slightly distorted. so i get that, if you look in the mirror and you think you’re fat, i understand that part of it. but surely you just want to be slim like a star on tv? but stars on tv still don’t look like those images i saw on the tv last night. and those pictures were horrific and disturbed me quite a lot. because how can anyone look at a picture of a skeletal woman with bones sticking out everywhere and no muscle whatsoever and think “yeah i wanna be like that?” like i say, i don’t understand this issue. for those who are suffering, forgive my ignorance. i just like to be frank and say it how it seems to me. for those who have lost people to anorexia, please forgive my lack of knowledge and know that i feel so much for you and your loss.
i don’t know what to make of these sites. i want to see for myself just how bad they are but i don’t know if i can. i think the term “pro-ana” is a very bad term, as it’s title suggests two things to me:
1 – that it is FOR anorexia, not for helping anorexics
2 – it seems like a buzzword, giving a cool status to an illness and the word “ana” is a girl’s name and therefore, there is an association with affection and femininity towards the disease. it makes the disease sound far too glamourous, so if people believe that pro-ana sites promote anorexia, then the public can be forgiven for thinking that. i don’t think that any word should make it sound nice. i have suffered with depression/ocd which is another mental illness and i can understand the need for community, and to hear other people’s stories to feel that you are not isolated. there is a place for community, but it needs to be treated very delicately. i can’t comment on the documentary. i only saw the last half so i didn’t see any crash dieting tips. it was shocking tv, that’s for sure. i don’t think fern should be blamed one hundred percent becuase it is a team of people who make and research a programme, not just one.

By: :-@

:-@ — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:54:30 +0000

how dare they call it a lifestyle choice. It’s a mental illness and those who do not suffer from it, will never understand what it’s like. Pro-ana sites are the only place where i can be my self and let everything out. I dont bare to think where i will be if there was no sites like that. It’s the one place where i can get support, we arent doing anything wrong to you, can’t you just let us be. Okay so it’s not fully healthy, but we would do a lot worse to our selves if we didn’t have each other!

By: Jenna

Jenna — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:33:56 +0000

anorexia is a disease that no body can prevent or help catching and while some websites can make it worse, some can help. it can kill people, but as some people have already said you are not allowed to post tip on the websites. you can also get help like confidentual telephone numbers to ring of webssites so you aren’t alone.
sorry about your wife Gary.

By: Rainie8

Rainie8 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:12:21 +0000

Reply to Taiy,

Thanks for reading and replying to my comment. I am currently starting to seek treatment and it has been a long difficult road. But, i urge others to do the same.

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:19:18 +0000

I know this documentary came out a week or so ago now, I have watched it and I felt that I had to respond to this. I want to point out I have never been anorexic, nor do I want to be, I’ve done a lot of research into anorexia and “pro-ana” The website Fearne looked at which was Livejournal, is a support website, all you have to do is read the rules to see that. I think Fearne went about this documentary in a very bad way, and has undoubtedly caused problems for the girls and guys that use these sites. I will admit I knew about livejournal a long time ago, as I stumbled across it while doing research for a paper. There are far worse sites than livejournal out there, and as mentioned in a previous post, most of the posts she read out are likely to be from “wannarexics”

Yes the “diets” Fearne tried are dangerous mainly because she probably eats 3 meals a day! These diets are designed so that people suffering from anorexia can still eat rather than fast (which is far more dangerous), but in a manner that feels safe to them (calorie controlled etc)

I hope Fearne realises the damage she has caused, as many of these communities are a “safe haven” where people suffering from anorexia can discuss how they feel among people that know exactly what they are going through because people who are not affected by this disorder do not understand.

I will admitt, I have looked at this site since the airing of the documentary to find that this place of refuge has become filled with “internet trolls” who are upsetting many of the people who use this site by posting nasty comments and being generally unhelpful to people who are genuinely suffering.

By: els

els — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:52:12 +0000

Ive sufferd from anorexia for five years now, and after my mums friend informed me about this new program starting i was dubious but interested to watch it. I have to say out of all the eating diorder documentories ive seen(which is a lot) this is the worse ive watched. I belong to a so called proana community,one of the largest(not shown on this program) which exists on the internet.We have VERY strict rules which say,there is to be NO encouraging of weight loss in any way, and this is common of many “proana” sites. What we actually do is, support each other through bad times, encourage each other to go to our therapy,gp,doctors etc aptmnts when we are feeling to down to go. If someone is worried about a health problem related to their eating disorder,no doubt someone else has had that same or similar problem,and so we can share our experiences,and just act like an online shoulder to dry on,or share our excitment if recovery starts to go well. I am not saying that what fearne showed doesnt happen,because no doubt it does, and if ever on “my” community a girl asked for a tip on how to improve her eating disorder,or develop one,she/he would be banned, but what fearne showed isnt how all proana sites are, and i wish she had showed both sides of the coin. Her diets were totally against the point,and made eating disorders seem like silly strict diets.They are not.They are serious mental illnesses,and i do not think Fearne managed to show how serious the illness is. Its not a diet, especially when your sectioned,on bed rest with a feeding tube being told you very nearly died and stil could. That isnt a diet.

By: zena

zena — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:33:22 +0000

it seemed almost as if she was making fun with her comments on thinspiration collages.
surely that can only have negative effects, on both anorexia sufferers and the program’s credibility.

By: Kat

Kat — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:13:34 +0000

Having read all your comments, I decided to look up pro ana websites – I couldn’t understand how Fearne was claiming these websites showed tips and tricks if they were actually banned…. Low and behold, the first few websites that came up on google did EXACTLY THAT!! How to recognise times when you may get hungry, how to limit your calorie intake and how to drink more water to stave off hunger…etc etc. Yes, they may have advice on making sure you take multivitamins to survive and avoid dehydration, but, in essence, they are still showing you how to survive on as few calories as possible! Yes, eating disorders are an illness, but the whole point that these pro-ana websites glorify them is spot on! Young impressionable girls will see this friendly online community and get a sense of belonging. Being surrounded by other like-minded people who are the only ones who seem to understand you, will make sufferers believe what they are doing to themselves is OK and not a problem. So, they will simply stop young sufferers getting help sooner. I have eating disorders in my family and know how hard it is to accept you have a problem and get help from your friends and family – I truly believe these websites will encourage youngsters to keep it to themselves and their ‘pro ana friends’.

By: Lisa Wilson

Lisa Wilson — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:59:06 +0000

I have just watched this, and am so angry at its empty-headed and naive approach. The footage of Fearne Cotton posing for a magazine cover while ‘trying out’ a thinspiration book just seems incredibly cruel. This was a hugely triggering documentary. She and everybody else involved in making it should be ashamed of themselves. I’ll be writing to ITV to complain as I am just so incensed!!