The Truth About Online Anorexia (with Fearne Cotton)

Sensationalist, same style as the binge drinking one Michelle Heaton did last year to prove how bad it is for you. So, do we like it? Well, thumbs up for trying to create awareness of it; there is an issue to do with female magazines which can present a pressure to be thin, and to make you feel uncomfortable about yourself (and that’s why I don’t read them). I agree it’s shocking, type it into google and bang you’re there, but do I wonder if anything can be done; as she said as soon as one gets taken down, one pops up again.

In the second part, she talks about how she feels about breaking the rules of the diet, and I think that really shows in one day how you get into it, how you get entranced. I remember in the summer how it went… You’re fat- eat less- eat even less- be really hungry but scared of eating- desperately calorie watching and every pain is worth it etc etc etc.

What does strike me is how innocent and perhaps ‘unedcated’ she is. Maybe it’s me, and she’s normal, since all normalcy is blown out of proportion. Suicide is normal to me, not to others; same here.

She may be ‘uneducated’ however, the kids in the school she visited weren’t. The girl to the right of her was far too knowledgeable, and I want to help that girl, so much. I was like one of them, the girl that hated her legs and thought she was fat (the girl furthest left I think it was), I was like her. Where does it come from? I can try and uncover some things but my memory isn’t great. The thing is that if people are told that thinking like that is wrong, they’ll keep schtum, which is worse. Locking things up isn’t the way forward, although neither is Ana!

I ‘made’ my mum watch this (well she wanted to change channel and I said no) and the entire time she was moaning about how crap it is to be thin: clothes don’t fit, you’re cold etc. But she doesn’t seem to recognise her own behaviour, that she does actually have issues (and I was kind of hoping she’d realise). It’s her and my father than have ‘made’ me like that; their comments that did it. They may say innocent comments being taken the wrong way, but, well, too late!

I should probably say at this point, that I’ve never visited a pro- ana site. I don’t want to, after seeing clips tonight and it had never really crossed my mind to. I haven’t really ever visited sites for anything, perhaps been influenced by people but not sought anything out. I don’t need to make anything worse, and I know that things can go downhill quite easily and you get into it, like Fearne saw after one day.

I agree what the founder of Sane said (I forget her name) GPs are probably the first port of call after many years, then even if they do get help, there aren’t enough resources to help everyone. Same problem across the spectrum, then.

Incidentally, my sister has just gone to eat a big bowl of cereal and a bun, apparently like I was at that age and my mum seems relieved. Good for her. Shame I was eating my feelings.

I think it’s great to raise awareness, I’m all for it, but I hold my breath as to whether it will work; where there’s a will there’s a way.