Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia sites.

birds:

I'm not uneducated about eating disorders.

I just don't think that's how you develop a mental disorder like anorexia. I'm aware that they glamorize it but I honestly don't think someone who isn't already eating disordered in some way or another is going to log onto a website and suddenly ~see the light~ or something. Anorexia is not a rational disease and I don't think healthy people suddenly decide they want to stop eating because of a bunch of girls on the Internet, a majority of which may have disordered thinking but weigh over 130 lbs and complain about all the ice cream they ate today and how dissapointed they are in themselves and how tomorrow will be better over and over again.

^You're missing the point.

Sometimes, I feel like a fat fuck and would quite happily stop eating for a few days if it meant I would drop weight quick and keep it off. But I know enough about nutrition and the way the body works to know that not eating doesn't equal long term weight loss unless you do it all the time.

But a lot of young girls aren't really aware of that. So they'll end up on one of these sites looking for quick weight loss tips and think okay, so I'll do that for a week. And they'll drop 5, 10lbs. Voila. Success. Then they eat normally again, and the weight comes back. So they think oh shit, I don't want to gain weight, so they ask their ~ana-buddies~ what to do, and before you know it they're not eating anything barely all the time because they don't want to gain the weight back.

If someone surrounds themselves with eating disordered people, even if it's just a website, it is very easy for them to become eating disordered themselves.

It's pretty prominent in England? There are like 8 bajillion British documentaries out there about 7 year old anorectics.

Anyone with half a brain can figure out that not eating, even for a short amount of time, makes you lose weight, and the same pattern can arise. I agree that these websites might contribute to eating disorders, but I don't necessarily think it's some wide-spread phenomenon that's ruining our totally well-rounded society that has ~*great body image to begin with and making everyone anorexic because the "lifestyle is so glamorous" or whatever.

^I'm English. It's as common here as it is everywhere else, I just don't think as many people are aware of it.

No one said pro-ana/mia sites are the primary reason for eating disorders, nor did anyone say that society doesn't already have messed up views when it comes to body image.

The point is that although these sites do negatively effect people, and they do more harm than good. We're all well aware that society is messed up enough on it's own, but having a bunch of sites that are basically a "how to be anorexic/bulimic" guide isn't exactly helping the situation.

Ok, yeah. It's probably ~one of those things~ that the world wouldn't exactly suffer from having not ever existed, but I still don't think they are that big of a deal that they should be actively removed from the Internet altogether.

I'm sure people get along fine with their ed-nos.

Don't the servers have a 'duty of care' that their websites can't inspire hatred or something along those lines?

It's absolutely disgusting.

Venomous.:

Don't the servers have a 'duty of care' that their websites can't inspire hatred or something along those lines?

It's absolutely disgusting.

Actually, there are a few pro-ana / mia sites which try to distance themselves from any harm that may be caused as a result of perusing one. They usually have disclaimers as an introductory page before you enter the site. But, I've only been onto a few.

I actually was a part of a "thinspo" community two years ago, when I had a disorder. What people don't realize, is that most of the kids in the community were there to loose weight and they just documented their progress on their blogs (most of them being 170 - 200 lbs). Also the reason they post pictures of skinny girls is because it's literally their inspiration "it's actually tangible". It shows that it is possible to loose weight. Kind of like sticking a picture of a model on the refrigerator thing.

Yeah, that's the point...

Well, 'thinspiration' doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with an eating disorder - I mean, I think it's kind of normal for someone to use another person as inspiration for whatever reason, including weightloss. But I feel that pro ana and mia sites are different from that. Yeah, they may have thinspo links and pictures, but a lot of them also have the 'ana creed' and the commandments etc. so it's different from just thinspo communities, I guess, because pro-ana and mia sites are not just websites about people documenting their weightloss.

the Abyss:

Well, 'thinspiration' doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with an eating disorder - I mean, I think it's kind of normal for someone to use another person as inspiration for whatever reason, including weightloss. But I feel that pro ana and mia sites are different from that. Yeah, they may have thinspo links and pictures, but a lot of them also have the 'ana creed' and the commandments etc. so it's different from just thinspo communities, I guess, because pro-ana and mia sites are not just websites about people documenting their weightloss.

But, as BARFBRAIN pointed out, they mainly involve (or at least the blatantly pro ana 4evazz sites) overweight girls. It isn't healthy, no... in fact, it's sort of sickening because they're trying to catch a disorder; even going as far as to say "i'm ana".

The thing I never got was all those commandments etc., because... I dunno, it just strikes me as, erm, crazy. I've never 'met' anyone to have believed in the ana goddess.

I suppose self-starvation 'support groups' are a crazy idea, too.

There are quite a few variations of 'pro ana', though... and there are places on the web that are neither pro-recovery or pro-ana. Blatant pro-ana gets all the press 'cause it's... not right.

I don't like how it glamourises a disorder and treats it as a wonderful lifestyle choice full of bikinis and bright smiles.

what the chipmunk?:

But, as BARFBRAIN pointed out, they mainly involve (or at least the blatantly pro ana 4evazz sites) overweight girls. It isn't healthy, no... in fact, it's sort of sickening because they're trying to catch a disorder; even going as far as to say "i'm ana".

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Because a site like Fading Obsession is a site where one can get things like fasting tips, and that "57 reasons" crap etc. It's not people documenting their weightloss, it's one person preaching and sharing their information.

I've honestly never encountered someone online that is both pro-anorexia and fits the physical / medical requirements to be diagnosed with it.

the Abyss:

what the chipmunk?:

But, as BARFBRAIN pointed out, they mainly involve (or at least the blatantly pro ana 4evazz sites) overweight girls. It isn't healthy, no... in fact, it's sort of sickening because they're trying to catch a disorder; even going as far as to say "i'm ana".

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Because a site like [insert site here] is a site where one can get things like fasting tips, and that "57 reasons" crap etc. It's not people documenting their weightloss, it's one person preaching and sharing their information.

I went on a lot of pro-ana sites in high school for a research paper and a lot when I was writing "To the Bones".
All I found were lists of tips, letters to Ana, letters from Ana, the Thin Commandments, the Ana Creed, etc, etc, etc.

^ Xanga has a bunch of communities where it's personal blogings.

birds:

I've honestly never encountered someone online that is both pro-anorexia and fits the physical / medical requirements to be diagnosed with it.

I've met people who claim to be, but then you never know online.

Everyone on those kinds of sites says they're "ana" regardless, because ED-NOS is not as glamorous, apparently. :coffee:

I don't believe anything online, hahahaha.

People who visit pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia hide behind their thinspiration and their jargon and their predictable routines, but none of it is ever personal besides "I fucked up today and ate some pizza". I mean if you're already down to 90 lbs you don't really need tips to lose weight, you're doing a pretty good job of it by yourself, you know?

BARFBRAIN:

^ Xanga has a bunch of communities where it's personal blogings.

I didn't go to communities. I was found a webring online and went to eight or nine pro-ana sites. I was researching the disease the way the character might [for TTB] and that was how I found what I did.

No, I don't these sites should be allowed.

Anorexia and bulimia are called eating disorders for a reason. It's unhealthy, and I fail to see how one can recover from an eating disorder when they're surrounded by people stuck in the same mindset as they are.

I became curious and went to one of the pro-ana sites. I don't have an eating disorder, nor do I want one, but I had heard about both and was wondering...

Maybe this hit me harder because my mum has told me she used to be anorexic and my sister was/is bulimic. But just reading a few things on a pro-ana site made me start sobbing, and shaking. I just remember being so scared because a section of my mind wanted to agree with the site. It really, truly did. Thankfully the rational portion of my brain kicked in to remind me that people die from this, that it easily becomes fatal. I haven't been looked at one since.

I don't think these sites should be allowed. Someone with less sense than myself (sounds narcissitic, but I think you guys know what I mean) could very easily be entranced by the disorder, and the way they glamourize it.

Edit: First of all, sorry for the humongous post.

The thing with pro-ana sites is that most of them are dripping with faux-disorders and ignorant girls who don't know what it's like to have an eating disorder.
I used to go on them all the time, and yeah, I freakin' loved them. I was one of the girls I just talked about. I was 11-13 at the time and honestly? These sites taught me how to hate myself.
They didn't teach me anything about eating disorders though, as a lot of what they talk about is either rumors, falsities or blatant lies.

If there's one thing that really, really irks me about them it's 'thinspiration.' As someone previously said, it's nothing unusual to use images of thinner people to help inspire you whilst dieting. I stumbled over maybe three or four people with actual eating disorders during my two years immersed for a good 12 hours a day in these communities. One of them said something absolutely brilliant, which helped me better understand eating disorders and has stuck with me to this day. She said, 'I don't need thinspiration because I can just go and look in a mirror and there it is. I don't need to look at stick-thin girls to create my willpower because I'm fat enough to disgust myself.' I'd like to point out that this was in the middle of a rant about pro-ana sites. Needless to say, she got bitched out of the site and didn't come back.

The thing is that these sites make eating disorders so freakin' pretty and it's disgusting. I'm not diagnosed with an eating disorder but I know what it's like to not be able to walk properly and have to support yourself on the walls because you haven't eaten for so long; or to physically not be able to get out of bed because your heart is already thumping and hurting so badly that if you do, you know you won't be able to catch your breath.
I was in hospital a year ago for depression and I was around a lot of girls with eating disorders. I lived with them, was friends with them and saw their self-loathing, the absolute pain it put them through to raise a fork to their mouth. One girl there couldn't even bring herself to eat a plate of six grapes.
That shit isn't glamorous and it isn't pretty. It's freakin' ugly and I'll tell you something...I used to wish beyond everything that I could look in the mirror and be so disgusted by myself that I couldn't eat, that I wanted to cry and that I wanted to rip my fat off of my body. That's because I believed this was the way I could be thin.

Now, I have had that slammed into me and I have no idea how to diet properly. I know the principles of it but no idea where to find the balance between eating too much and too little. How much is too much weight and how much is too little. Now, I look in the mirror and I cry. Now, I look at myself and I want to puke.
Is it pretty? Am I thin? Fuck no. Do I wish I could go back to before I knew about any of this shit. Before I knew the best way to make yourself sick or what the best food to start and end a binge with is? Yeah. In a heart beat.

The thing is that I can't. These sites...their one good point is that they provide a solid support network - some of them at least - where suffering people can go and find out what risks they're putting themselves under and educate themselves on their disorders without feeling badly judged. But honestly? Is that worth all the other damage that they cause? No.

These sites, most of them have a target age of I'd say between 12 and 15. That's sick. That's getting girls who are just starting puberty over and saying, 'hey, come join our community, we'll show you how to pretty yourself up, teach you how to lie to your parents and impress your friends with your stick-thin physique.' Which, let's face it guys, is bullshit because very rarely do pubescent girls impress their friends by having a ton of health issues, no boobs and a bag of bones. And you want to know the punchline? When I was on these sites I had one that I graced the most, which was run by someone who weighed 250lbs. Which is in no way 'anorexic.' My best friend or 'ana-buddy' weighed 230lbs. I'm not saying that people who weigh that amount are ugly, I'm just saying that people who weigh that amount and then turn around and proclaim to the world that they're anorexic and how great it is are pathetic.

I weighed a healthy 115lbs and these places managed to convince me that I had an eating disorder and all I had to prove it was get down to a severly underweight BMI. Something else that sticks into my mind is a girl who went to hospital after having a heart attack and then, when she returned, she poetically bragged about the bruises she'd obtained on her chest during CPR.

I'm not denying that these sites have maybe one use but that use is far overshadowed by all of their dangers and support would much better be found in friends, family and doctors.