Sisterhood of Starvation

There's always going to be someone prettier than you, thinner than you and hotter than you."
-Venus*, on one reason college eating disorders are so prominent

Mary* just wants to be skinny. For her, it is an all-consuming, elusive goal. She says that she wants perfection.

How thin is thin enough for Mary?

“I want to see bones," she writes on her pro-anorexia blog.

College has always been a breeding ground for eating disorders. Statistics show that about one in 10 college females has an eating disorder. For men, the number is far less, but it’s rising. It’s also estimated that about 10 percent of people with anorexia die from the disorder.

Accurate statistics are hard to find about eating disorders, because, in many cases, it is easy to hide them. With the creation of pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia Web communities, it’s getting even easier.

In recent years, the rise of pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia Web sites and communities has provided an outlet for people suffering from eating disorders to find encouragement from others - except they don’t consider Anorexia or Bulimia diseases.

To Mary and other members of these communities, “Ana" and “Mia", as they affectionately refer to the disorders, are lifestyle choices. Their pages are plastered with pictures of celebrities that they call “thinspirations", like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the international supermodel Giselle and Lindsey Lohan. The communities are overwhelmingly female, and they give tips on how to keep from being hungry and how to hide your condition from friends and family.

Mary is a member of a pro-Ana community specifically designed for college students. Venus* is a member of the same community.

Venus attributes the number of college eating disorders to trying to fit in a new environment.

“You're insecure and maybe a little intimidated. You want to make friends, meet guys, party and look good. There's always going to be someone prettier than you, thinner than you and hotter than you."

For her and other students suffering from eating disorders, the Web communities are an underground society.

“Probably the biggest draw of all is the sense of community that forms, that sisterhood across miles, even with strangers, because we will support each other. We know what we're going through," Venus said.

For doctors and counselors, this movement represents something much more dangerous.

Something-fishy.org, an online eating disorder pro-recovery Web site, warns against the Web sites. Its creator, Amy Medina, lived with anorexia for years before realizing that she was killing herself, and now she helps others get through the recovery process.

“While it can be comforting to a sufferer to be amongst those who understand, it is not safe or healthy for them to be in an environment where the behaviors of an eating disorder are encouraged or justified as okay, safe, fine or ‘just a way to lose weight’ - they are not," she writes to her readers. "They are dangerous, self-defeating, self-destructive and very often, life threatening."

As risky as the sites may seem, they are difficult, if not impossible, to stop. The members communicate under code names for their diseases and for themselves, and they generally use online journals that are not censored.

Some of the sites even try to recruit people into the “pro-ed movement". Most, however, like Venus, seem to know that they’re treading on fragile ground.

“The images and words that we're posting are really powerful. They show what we're about and can easily influence people who might be leaning towards the disease anyway… Sometimes I feel bad for being part of the problem," she said.

Then she pleaded with potential readers to stay away.

“Don't do it! Close the sites, they are for people who are already entrenched in the disease. Even if you're curious, don't look at them, please. It can change your life for the worse."

And yet they keep growing. Desperate for an outlet and not knowing where to turn, new members get sucked in every day. This society shows a bleak side of modern culture rarely seen, plastered with emaciated women, self-mutilation, cries for help from emotional demons and words to motivate that push members deeper into a world in which they have become lost:

Quod me nutrit, me destruit.

“What nourishes me destroys me."

*Last name withheld to protect privacy.

If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, contact a local psychiatrist or counselor, or go to www.somethingfishy.org or www.addictions.net to find help in your area.