Pro-Anorexia (FGCU) Kristina Dwyer

“A Web page labeled “Ana Boot Camp” recently offered its members a seemingly irresistible proposition: a 30-day regimen designed to help them drop some serious pounds, no exercise needed. The catch was that the group’s members were to vary their daily caloric intake from 500 (less than half the daily minimum requirement for women recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine) to zero. They were supposed to track their progress, fast to make up for the days they accidentally “overate” and support each other as they worked toward their common goal of radical weight loss.”

I was stumbling across Newsweek, when I came across this article: Out of the Shadows. I was upset at first because I wasn’t able to use this new information in my midterm ( Based on Eating Disorders. ) The article was found online while I was searching for current issues. The photo’s on the page and many of the words jumped out at me. Within seconds I had finished. Shocked. Not only do we live in a society where mass media and advertisement are playing a huge role on female as well as male development; we live in one that provokes it. Misleading adds, fad diets, Hollywood, all selling an image that is not ideal. For those who are following this, it is extremely dangerous. Self image and esteem is washed away, and replaced with thoughts of control and perfection. People all over the world are feeling society’s pressure, and struggling to find a safe median. For many that is not a choice.

The Internet, has been a safe haven for those starving for help, advice, and understanding. Underground blogs, Live-journal, Xanga, and now I’ve heard My-space andFacebook are a part of it too. A part of what exactly?

A Pro-Anorexia movement. Users on the blogs, update regularly, posting pictures of their weight loss, reading off what they call “stats” ( height, age, current weight, lowest weight, goal weight, BMI.) The longer the person is on the site, the sadder it is, tracking even one individual, you will see an innocent girl go from a healthy, strong hundred and thirty pounds  at 5′5” waste away. Her posts will read, ” I’ve finally hit goal weight 3, but 102 doesn’t feel right, I don’t feel any smaller, I feel disgusting, I swear I’ll never eat again, I hate what it does to me. Fat pig, i should die….”

In the article it quotes: ” Pro-anorexia, or “pro-ana,” Web sites (with more than one using the “Ana Boot Camp” name) have for years been a controversial Internet fixture, with users sharing extreme diet tips and posting pictures of emaciated girls under headlines such as “thinspiration.” But what was unusual about the site mentioned above (which is no longer available) was where it was hosted: the ubiquitous social networking site Facebook.com. The (largely female) users who frequent pro-ana sites have typically done so anonymously, posting under pseudonyms and using pictures of fashion models to represent themselves. Now, as the groups increasingly launch pages on Facebook, linking users’ real-life profiles to their eating disorders, the heated conversation around anorexia has become more public. Many pro-ana Facebookers say the groups provide an invaluable support system to help them cope with their disease, but psychologists worry that the growth of such groups could encourage eating disorders in others.”

The weird thing is, tracking that individual, the comments I read were of no support, no hot lines. All i read were comments on how to purge, how her metabolism might be slowing down and she should consume at least 150 calories, but no more. Some girls told her not to give up, some told her she needed to loose weight in her “midsection”

I’m not sure what kind of support this is, how this is recovery, or why these sights are still up. There is also a YouTube video up if you look for it about a British radio voice who studied these sites and even attempted the diets, she then concluded it was impossible to live that way. The worst part is that these girls, live in seclusion, they hide their eating disorder, and they are addicted to the websites, and the comments. Checking, every second, for some sort of hope.

“Pro-ana group creators insist that they aren’t recruiting anorexics and are just supporting each other. In fact, there are some groups that are legitimately focused on recovery. Still, the effects of even such makeshift support groups are likely not as benign as some fans claim. “The more types of these sites that you use, the higher your risk for disordered eating is,” says Stanford professor Rebecka Peebles, M.D., acknowledging that that correlation doesn’t prove that the sites necessarily contribute to the disorder. A 2006 study that she coauthored found that 96 percent of teens diagnosed with eating disorders who visited pro-eating disorder Web sites learned new dieting and purging techniques, and almost 50 percent of teens who visited sites ostensibly devoted to eating disorder recovery also learned new weight-loss tips.”

Although some sites have been shut down, the creators put them back up almost instantly, because it’s the Internet, it’s hard to control and ban all the websites, and there will always be places for these girls to go. But why give into it, why support a disease, that kills one in five? Why succumb to the unrealistic ideals society today has set? You don’t have to be a size 0.

Dove’s add for beauty is at least progress and a fight against the war. And although it’s hard to tell which side is winning, you can decide what side to help.

SITE:   http://www.newsweek.com/id/170528

This entry was posted on 18. April 2009 at 21:40 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.