When I was first diagnosed with OCD, almost 9 years ago now, I remember finding someone else who also had fears of AIDS contamination. I gasped, and then giggled a bit, in relief. I wasn't alone. For the seven years between the onset of my symptoms and my diagnosis, I thought I was living in a delusional world, Population: One.

I wasn't. And it felt pretty good.

Many people diagnosed with a mental illness (or other condition) find great solace in virtual gathering places where they feel less alone, where their daily trials and tribulations are understood and honored. These places--websites, blogs, bulletin boards, chat rooms--can be incredibly healing.

They can also keep an individual stuck in their illness.

An article in this week's New York Times discussed a disturbing trend of websites that support the idea of mind control. In this case, sufferers of paranoia or schizophrenia who believe they are being stalked or that their minds are being controlled gather together on websites, where they swap stories and provide evidence of how they are all being stalked or controlled.

In the article, Dr. Ralph Hoffman, a psychiatry professor at Yale is quoted as saying:

“The views of these belief systems are like a shark that has to be constantly fed,” Dr. Hoffman said. “If you don’t feed the delusion, sooner or later it will die out or diminish on its own accord. The key thing is that it needs to be repetitively reinforced.”

You could easily argue, as was mentioned in the paragraph after this quote, that the pro-eating disorder websites are exactly the same thing.

A person with an eating disorder isn't generally delusional, except on the subject of food and weight. Then, all bets are off. And this gathering of people only feeds and reinforces the "shark" of the eating disorder. The solace of knowing you aren't the only person afraid of potential calories in Chap Stick is lost to the swapping of weight loss tips and out-and-out competition to lose the most weight.

Some have argued that these websites can be the only support these sufferers get, and so leave them up. But these websites aren't supporting sufferers. They're supporting the illness.

And that is the difference. It's why I participate in this blogging community, and not other message boards, including those deemed "pro-recovery." There, I often feel I am shouting into the wind, and that those sites only reinforce the illness. Why is this community different? Perhaps its people in recovery or actively pursuing it. Maybe it's because we don't just talk about the eating disorder.

Speaking of people believing they are being stalked or controlled: "These people lead quietly desperate lives,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. “And if they are reinforcing each other and pulling people toward something, if they are using the Internet and getting reinforcement, that’s good."

And in this little corner of the blogosphere, I think, we are are really reinforcing recovery.