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Pictures
of People with Eating Disorders and Pro Eating Disorder
Websites
Photo Policy
Are you looking for pictures of people with eating disorders?
Do you have an interest in pro eating disorder websites?
For
over 20 years, we have published and distributed books
on eating disorders. My wife Lindsey Hall, and I (Leigh
Cohn) wrote Bulimia:
A Guide to Recovery, the first publication
solely about bulimia. We own
Gürze
Books and www.bulimia.com.Several tasteful photos are in the 2006 book, Thin, which we do carry.
If
you are looking for tips on how to have an eating disorder,
you won't find them here. But you can find the dangers
of eating disorders listed here.
Over
the years, we've also had many requests for pictures
of people with eating disorders. Typically, they came
from students and journalists. Currently, the most common
requests come from web surfers looking for online photos
of anorexics or bulimics. However, it has always been
our policy to neither publish nor distribute these kinds
of photos.
If
you personally suffer from an eating disorder, we care
about you and want to help you to recover. Seeing photos
will not help in any way. Sometimes people get competitive
about how thin they are. Comparing yourself to others
with an eating disorder is not productive. Going to
pro eating disorder websites is not healthy. However,
we do have books that might help you move toward recovery. Anorexia
Nervosa: A Guide to Recovery combines 'the
facts' with personal experience and compassion. A few
others are listed to the right, and there are many more
at this website listed under "Books - Categories".
We also have links to positive organizations and other
informational sites.
If
however, you are looking for photos that are salacious
or sensationalize eating disorders, we oppose this use
of them. These photos are demeaning. They stereotype
and trivialize both the individual photographed and
the scores of unseen sufferers and their families. They
are also disrespectful of professional clinicians and
researchers who have devoted their lives to helping
women and men with anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge
eating disorder, and other related problems.
Where
to Find Photos of Eating Disorders
There
are many places to find these kinds of images. Photographs
of anorexics and bulimics are in most fashion magazines.
In fact, many of the models are dangerously thin because
they suffer from eating disorders. You can also look
in many junior and senior high school yearbooks for
people obsessed with food and weight. That's when these
illnesses often take root. You may find snapshots in
your family albums, because many bulimics are secretive—even
their loved ones are not aware of the disease. People
with severe anorexia look like the victims in photos
from concentration camps that you've probably seen.
Pictures of bulimics are also in the obituaries; eating
disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric
disorder.
Some
of the most searched for terms on the internet include
"pro bulimia" and "eating disorder pictures."
Maybe that's why you found this page. There is nothing
titillating about images of people with these disorders.
I've seen pictures in medical books and even show the
slide of a male anorexic in some of my clinical talks.
There's nothing sexy about these photos. They do not
record achievement, only obsessive and potentially deadly
behavior.
Students
who write papers on eating disorders need to understand
the seriousness of these problems. How would you illustrate
a paper on schizophrenia or claustrophobia? If you write
a paper on alcoholism, do you show photos of people
drinking? Are they your loved ones? Individuals with
anorexia nervosa and bulimia are your neighbors, families,
and friends—people working in the stores where
you shop and the school you attend. Please respect them
by not showing them.
Additional Resources:
Soul Lessons: Finding the Meaning of Life
Surviving Holiday Meals
The Beginner's Guide to Eating Disorder Recovery
The Death of Nasogastric Tube Feeding
The Hunger for Unconditional Love
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