I'd like to take the opportunity this morning to talk about the Pro Ana/Pro Mia community. For those of you who don't know, Pro Anorexia and Pro Bulimia sites are websites that people with EDs can go onto to chat, look up tips and tricks, learn about how to hide, purge, or fast, and look at thinspiration, or thinspo. Thinspo is pictures of very skinny people, often skeletal, that motivate the individual to continue with their disorder.
I have lived in the world of Pro Ana for years, so I am not here to condemn those of you who visit these sites. However, while I have done this, I do not consider myself a "Pro Anorexic". Anorexia is a horrible mental illness that shatters life and steals precious years, often from your adolescence and early adulthood. Even the people who call themselves Pro Anorexics and say that anorexia is a lifestyle choice are not so. They are sick. Their disease is controlling them. Anorexia is Pro Ana. "Sally" is just trying to find an accepting community and a way to understand.
And it's addicting, especially the thinspo. I sometimes call it "anorexic porn" because it's raw and disturbing, and once you start it's very hard to stop. It's something I still struggle with.
Pro Ana provides an accepting community for those who struggle. Pro Anorexics will even go as far as to say they help prevent suicides because there is a place online to come and talk when people need help. While this may be the case, individual therapy and pro recovery sites would be a much better choice. In my opinion, they do more harm than good and there should be more effort to shut them down.
If you have a friend or loved one who you know is going to these sites, please get them help. If they are looking at thinspo, it is likely that they already have an ED and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Pro Ana is not a lifestyle choice, it is a demon and an addiction.
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