Abstract
Recently, people who experienced eating disorders have begun to discuss their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Attempts to explain eating disorders in contemporary society have concentrated on the etiology of "individual/mental problens", "family problems" and "social probrems." However, on the Internet, some of the recovered people consider eating disorders as "diet problems" caused by strict diet. Further, they believe that they can overcome their disorders by consuming regular meals. The approach of consuming regular meals, that is, "training to eat" has been accepted as one of the means for recovery by some bulimic people. I tried to consider the present situation surrounding anorexic/bulimic people by focusing on the trends on the Internet.
In this paper, I selected two stories of people who recovered from bulimia nervosa. I examined why they refer to their illness as a diet problem instead of providing other explanations. Further, I also considered the reason behind this explanation.
I obtained the following two results. First, it was clear that the etiological explanations of eating disorders prevail among bulimic people. However, former suffers criticize "individual/mental," "family" and "social" frames can't provide them any solutions. They state that these interpretations are based on etiology. However, there is a difference between exploring the cause of a disease and exploring the solutions for it. People want to know the solutions and not the causes.
Second, it was clear that the explanation of eating disorders as diet problems is an attempt to reclaim the means to the solutions for binge eating/vomiting. Further, it is an attempt by sufferers to reclaim the right to solve the problem themselves.
