Who We Are :: Legal Stuff Volunteering :: Awards

advertising opportunities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

We are a PRO-Recovery Website
(Media Attention Regarding Websites that Promote Anorexia/Bulimia as a "Lifestyle" or "Diet")

With so much media attention on negative and triggering websites that encourage Anorexia and Bulimia as lifestyles, not as the truly incideous illnesses that they are, it is important for Tony and I to openly address this issue to the visitors of our site.

Whether you are a new visitor, or someone who has been coming to the Something Fishy Website for years, it is important to understand that we are a PRO RECOVERY website. We have worked hard since 1995 to address Anorexia, Bulimia, Compulsive Overeating and Binge Eating Disorder as serious mental illnesses, ones that can not only lead to a lot of physical dangers, but terrible ongoing emotional turmoil. Eating Disorders are not about weight and food, though their symptoms would have everyone "on the outside" fooled into thinking so. These illnesses are about an inability to cope with life and stress; they are about low self-esteem and feeling out of control; and they are an internal power struggle for survival (read "This Child"; read "Prevention - Causes"). We encourage you to take your time and read through the website and learn as much about Eating Disorders as you can.

Many things can be triggering to someone with an Eating Disorder -- where "triggering" means it can contribute further to a sufferer feeling badly about themselves. Tony and I have made it a priority to do everything we can to provide as safe and as non-triggering an environment here as possible. There are no weights discussed on this website, no calorie amounts or discussion of body mass, and our online support communities (bulletin board and chat) have strict rules that forbid discussion of numbers and tips to promote a safe environment that encourages recovery. You will also NEVER find any pictures here. If you want to see someone with an Eating Disorder, walk down the street and look at anyone... because anyone can suffer, and a woman or man does not need to appear emaciated nor obese to suffer from Anorexia, Bulimia, Compulsive Overeating or Binge Eating Disorder.

Visiting websites that encourage Anorexia or Bulimia as a "lifestyle" is another signal that someone may be suffering with an Eating Disorder (think of an alcoholic who continuously hangs around with other drinkers, or a drug addict who keeps company with other addicts). It is an indication that the sufferer may be in denial, or may be looking to justify to themselves and those around them that their behaviors are okay, are safe, are "normal". 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. They are dangerous, self-defeating, self-destructive, and very often, life threatening.

As someone completely recovered, I have been there.
I have been in a place where I was sure that I was "okay"... that I knew how to keep myself safe... that my behaviors didn't hurt others or that I could keep myself from going "too far". I have lived inside of denial. I have lived inside the place where having Anorexia made me feel "special" or "different" or "deep and mysterious"... or where I thought it would get me more liked, more attention from those I needed it from, or even where I thought it would make me disappear so no one would notice me. I thought it made me "strong".

What I have learned by getting through to the other side of recovery, by being recoverED, is that I'm a good person, and a much more complete person WITHOUT an Eating Disorder. I did not lose my compassion or my ability to understand, nor did I lose my creativity or ability to be unique. What I gained was more creativity and understanding, and a true appreciation for how special I truly am, and how truly unique we ALL are. What I know now is that it takes much more strength to recover, and to truly live life, than to hide away inside an Eating Disorder forever.

Everyone deserves to, and has the strength inside them to recover, without exception.

The Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders is not a site that will EVER encourage anything but for it's visitors to strive for recovery... to strive to find the strength to search for who you are, deep down underneith disordered behaviors. I speak to YOU now, for you are NOT your Eating Disorder, nor is your identity lost forever to behaviors you can't stop thinking about, or problems and stresses you feel trapped in. You can be free of your Eating Disorder... so you can be free just to be YOU.

And for parents or other loved-ones who may stumble across this website, please take the time to browse around and to understand that not ALL websites dedicated to Eating Disorders are on the web with the purpose to encourage an unhealthy "lifestyle". Eating Disorders are an illness... and our goal here has always been to help, to reach out and offer hope, and to push for the recovery from this illness... the recovery of each visitor that enters the virtual door. We have done this since 1995, and will continue to do so long into the future.

Be kind to yourselves and to each other...
and always Take care of YOU

Amy Medina
Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders

Also Read: WWW.Warning -- Negative Internet Sites