Battling Bulimia
By Melissa WagnerYAKIMA - What may start as a simple plan to lose weight can quickly turn into a deadly disease. Millions of women and men suffer from eating disorders, and in today's world, they don't have to learn tricks from their friends. You can go right on the internet to find sites supporting anorexia or bulimia. MultimediaKIMA talked with one woman who said it's very easy to find all the "wrong" information. Including tips that can kill you. Megan knows firsthand just how dangerous these "how to" websites can be. She battled anorexia and bulimia for ten years. "There were times where I could Google 'better ways to make yourself throw up' and it's out there," said Megan. A recent study shows nearly 80 percent of these websites have interactive features, like message boards or diet tools. Including tips on how to keep the weight off. No matter how dangerous those tips are. And fewer than half offer information on how to get help. "It becomes kind of a competition between people who have eating disorders, in that they think if they can do it, I can do it better. That's kind of the mind set of the eating disorder," said Erwina Peterson, an eating disorder counselor. Peterson has treated people with eating disorders for thirty years. She knows the sites are out there, but says plenty of good websites also offer help. That may be true, but when we Googled "bulimia", the first hit we got was "Bulimia tips", giving us easy ways to binge and purge. Megan said, "There's websites and chat rooms and everything. Everyone shares their techniques on how they make themselves vomit." KIMA asked, " Did that surprise you at all? How accessible it was?" Megan answered, " No. It didn't surprise me. Because with my generation everything is accessible on the internet." And what's on the internet can stall the recovery of a disease already dubbed " a slow killer". Megan says she hopes more parents watch what sites their kids are visiting, before it's too late. Click Newslinks for Websites offering help for eating disorders. |
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