Parents need to know about this one.
Websites that are “pro-ana” and “pro-mia” — pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia, respectively — appear to be growing, despite efforts by groups led by former sufferers and eating-disorder organizations to push them off mainstream venues such as Yahoo and AOL.
The young women who congregate on the sites have their own lexicon: Tips they share are called “thinspiration,” for instance. Their online names reflect their desires: “WannaBpurrrfect,” “00anagoddess00” and “PurfectLeighThin.”
Pro-ana-site webmasters and site visitors say that, for them, anorexia is anything but a life-threatening disease. “People don’t understand that anorexia is a choice, a DIET, a lifestyle that has nothing to do with ’emotional instability,’ etc.,” the anorexic schoolgirl wrote in an e-mail message.
Anorexia and the Elderly
I was surprised, while doing research for the above story, to trip across this one. While the number of deaths is relatively small, most people who die from anorexia are elderly people, not young people. In fact, almost four out of every five deaths (78.6 percent) that involved anorexia nervosa occurred in those more than 45 years of age.
A November 28, 1996 UBC release noted a study by Professor Paul Hewitt and Professor Stanley Coren. Hewitt and Coren examined 10.5 million U.S. death records for the years 1986-90 listing anorexia nervosa as a factor contributing to mortality.
They found that although the illness is more common among young people, it is more deadly for the elderly, “accounting for 78 percent of all anorexia nervosa deaths.”
According to the release, the median age of women who die from the disorder is 69. Among men, it is 80. The study also found that 21 percent of anorexics over 45 are men, double the proportion among young people, and that all fatalities increase sharply after 50 and continue rising until age 80 to 85. No reasons are given for the age and sex disparities.
Eating disorders specialist Dr. Barton J. Blinder observes that teenage-onset anorexia may go into remission for decades and then recur during an emotionally difficult period. He cites findings that post-menopausal women who develop anorexia are severely depressed and suicidal, which may account for their higher death rate.
Runaway Foster Children
You have, no doubt, read about the Florida foster care program problems. Don’t think for a minute it is isolated. You had better take a look at your own state.
The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal says, “One in 20 children in Tennessee’s foster care program is officially classified as missing. But the state notes that about 98 percent of the 496 missing wards are runaway older teens, and there are limits to what the state can do to find them.
“One critic rejects that explanation. ‘Runaway — that’s what they say in every state,’ said Richard Wexler, president of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va.
“Wexler, head of the national reform group, said many states have put more emphasis on foster care systems than on preventing the breakup of families. ‘Part of the reason you have these problems with so many children running away is they are running from a lousy foster care system that is overwhelmed with children who don’t need to be there.’
“He said many states write off missing kids as runaways who eventually will show up somewhere, when in reality the state, as legal guardian, is obligated to make every effort to locate a child as quickly as possible.
” ‘What I would say if it were a 16- or 17-year-old of mine, we would move heaven and earth to find them. When a state has custody of a 16- or 17-year- old, it has the same obligation,’ he said.
“The nation’s most notorious recent case of a missing foster child occurred last summer in Florida, where a 5-year-old girl was absent for 16 months before the state realized she was gone. She has not been found.
“And in Los Angeles two weeks ago, authorities revealed that 488 of the county’s 50,000 foster children were absent, with almost half believed taken by relatives or guardians, and the other half runaway. At least eight children were killed or died in accidents while missing, according to The Associated Press.”
Daycare Surplus?
I am always looking for the “man bites dog stories” and here is one in The Baltimore Sun, which reports, “Due in part to an increase in the number of care providers and a softening of the economy, what had been described as a critical shortage of child care in a Maryland county has turned into a surprising surplus.”
