Wannarexia Explained

Wannarexia, or anorexic yearning,^[1] is a label applied to someone who claims to have anorexia nervosa, or wishes they did, but does not.^[2] These individuals are also called wannarexic,^[3] "wanna-be ana"^[4] or "anorexic wannabe". The neologism wannarexia is a portmanteau of the latter two terms. It may be used as a pejorative term.^[5]

Wannarexia is a cultural phenomenon and has no diagnostic criteria. Wannarexia is more commonly, but not always, found in teenagers who feel the need to lose weight and think that anorexia will solve their dissatisfaction with their appearance,^[6] and is likely caused by a combination of cultural and media influences.

Many people who actually suffer from the eating disorder anorexia are angry, offended, or frustrated about wannarexia. Eating disorders are about using food to cope with life distress and poor body image, and they have very complex underlying causes. People with eating disorders might use weight as a measure of self-worth, and they often derive pleasure from losing weight while it does not feel enough. The notion of "wannarexic" is a potentially dangerous invalidation of eating disorders that are not specified based on the BMI criteria of the DSM. This can cause those labeled as "wannarexic" to feel as though they are not sick enough, which may cause the development or worsening of an eating disorder.

Wannarexics may be inspired or motivated by the pro-anorexia, or pro-ana, community that often promotes or supports anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than an eating disorder.^[7] Some participants in pro-ana web forums only want to associate with "real anorexics" and will shun wannarexics who only diet occasionally, and are not dedicated to the "lifestyle" full-time.^[8] Community websites for anorexics and bulimics have posted advice to wannarexics saying that they do not want their "warped perspectives and dangerous behaviour to affect others."

Kelsey Osgood uses the label in her book How To Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia where she describes wannarexia as "a gateway drug for teenagers".^[9]

Further reading

• Web site: Wannarexia: When Death Becomes Trendy. 2007-08-25. Drummond, Katie. 2007-08-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20100130093359/http://www.heractivelife.com/women/comment/wannarexia-when-death-becomes-trendy/. 2010-01-30. Her Active Life. The Final Sprint, LLC. …but for many young women, anorexia has become a hot new trend, so common that medical experts have coined a new name, 'wannarexia,' to describe the dangerous fad..
• Book: Forman-Brunell, Miriam. Girlhood in America: an encyclopedia. registration. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara, Calif. 2001. 245. 1-57607-206-1. With this widespread popularization of the illness, susceptible girls could be heard to say, not "I want to be thin" but "I want to be anorexic..
• Book: Kano, Susan . Anorexic Thoughts and Attitudes . Making peace with food: freeing yourself from the diet/weight obsession . Perennial Library/Harper & Row Publishers . New York, NY . 1989 . 0-06-096328-X . Most young women have "anorexic thoughts" and attitudes . registration . https://archive.org/details/makingpeacewithf00kano .
• Book: Rachael Oakes-Ash. So you want to be anorexic—join the queue. Good girls do swallow. Mainstream. Edinburgh. 2001. 1-84018-480-9.

Notes and References

1. Hardin, P.K. . 2003 . Shape-shifting discourses of anorexia nervosa: reconstituting psychopathology . Nursing Inquiry . 10 . 4 . 209–217 . 10.1046/j.1440-1800.2003.00189.x . Anorexic yearning. Accounts of individuals stating that they want to become anorexic stirred the greatest energetic debate on the Internet boards. . 14622367.
2. Web site: Wannarexia? . 2007-10-18 . 2007-08-10 . Tiemeyer, Matthew . . …'wannarexia' refers to someone who wants to 'catch' anorexia in order to lose weight and, presumably, be more popular. .
3. News: Bauman, Valerie. 2007-08-04. 'Wannarexic' girls aspire to be anorexic, eating disordered. Newsday. 2007-08-06. Most commonly found among teenage girls, wannarexia is a label describing those who claim to have anorexia, or wish they did..
4. Giles, D. . 2006 . Constructing identities in cyberspace: The case of eating disorders . British Journal of Social Psychology . 45 . 3 . 463–477 . 10.1348/014466605X53596 . 16984715. 16799553 .
5. Cohen, D. . 2007 . Live from London The worrying world of eating disorder wannabes . BMJ . 335 . 7618 . 516 . 10.1136/bmj.39328.510880.59 . Wannarexia is a pejorative term and…is the latest word to come from the fast paced world of eating disorder terminology…. Community websites for genuinely anorexic and bulimic people have hit back by setting up sites offering advice to those trying to 'develop anorexia,' saying that they don't want their 'warped perspectives and dangerous behaviour to affect others.'. 1971201 .
6. News: Bauman, Valerie. 2007-08-06. Bad fad: Wannarexia. 24. Associated Press. AM New York.
7. Lyons, E.J. . Mehl, M.R. . Pennebaker, J.W. . 2006 . Pro-anorexics and recovering anorexics differ in their linguistic Internet self-presentation . Journal of Psychosomatic Research . 60 . 3 . 253–256 . Pro-anorexia has emerged as a new and emotionally charged eating disorder phenomenon…self-identified pro-anorexics…defend anorexia as a lifestyle… . 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.07.017 . 16516656. 14144604 .
8. Web site: No Wannarexics Allowed: An Analysis of Online Eating Disorder Communities . Digital Youth Project . 2007-08-06 . Pascoe, C.J. . University of California, Berkeley. According to the posters on these sites a 'wannarexic' is someone who occasionally diets but who is not dedicated to an eating disordered "lifestyle." . CJ Pascoe.
9. News: 'I feel guilty but I hate my body': a feminist confesses. 31 March 2015. Guardian. 8 November 2014.