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Pro ED websites and groups
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I came across a pro ED community on Xanga....i was so sickened. Its full of brainwashed girls bragging about being anorexic and 'thinspiration'. They brag about eating next to nothing and doing work outs. What the hell is with this? Have they got no sense at all? They all want to be skinny like models....what is the obession with being a bag of bones? Sorry, just needed a rant because i find it so frustrating that people do this to themselves and think it's clever.
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I remember seeing one of these sites (well, I hunted one down out of curiosity - with great difficulty - after reading a report about them in the paper) with all these tips for sating your appetite, poems about "ana" and "mia", and the "thinspiration" you're talking about. It's scary stuff, for sure.
An ED communit should more tend to help people with ED to get out of it and not help them or give them technics to even have a better ED than they have already.
Unfortunatly you have some people that can not accept themselves for who they are and sometimes the tend to say it is clever just so they reassure themselves that what they are doing is normal.
I think it is sad that just to lose weight some just put her head down the toilet. What about doing some exercise or eating less, at the end of the day by losing weight this way it might be harder, but you are more proud of yourself for it and show you that you are a stronger person than you thought you were.
Also I think it is more a per case thing really, as people having ED can have it for morer reason that just the will to lose weight and and like all disorders sometimes the solution and the way out is more complex than it may seem.
The site I used, while it was a pro-ed site, in a way it was more pro-choice about it. it gave support for those who were enjoying their ed, gave low cal recipes, ways to beat hunger, thinsperation etc, but any time that anyone wanted to recover, they were also really supportive too.
It got closed down once which was a shame because i really dont like censorship - it was my choice to go there. It re-opened eventually though which i was pleased about because i didnt like some of the other sites as much. I eventually stopped going when i felt ready and because i realised that the site - whilst I found it helpful in some ways, it was also triggering me in others. I dont think they should be reported. I think there is a need for them.
was i looking in the wrong place?
Yeah. The one I went to had Thinspirations (mostly Mary Kate from what I could make out) and Triggers, pictures of overly obese people.
Agreed. And surely the best of way of losing weight is to exercise or eat healthy, not just straving yourself to death?
It's sad that girls think if they're thin then they're 'strong' and will be more attractive. More than likely their periods will stop and once that happens their bones start to deteriorate...and can develop early osteporosis.....how nice. They have perfectly fine bodies then they go and do this to themselves
because they're mentally ill?
there are hundreds of reasons why people do it, but i don't think any of them do it simply because they think being thin makes them better.
Hmm, I'd say that's a lot to do with their perception of these people's lives as being glamorous, problem-free and perfect. It's not difficult to see why they'd deduce that thin=great life when these celebrities and models are lauded, rich and famous...and praised continually for how thin they are compared to mere mortals.
Some, by no means all, people with disordered eating are led to it by the glorification of being thin, though...it can be about control, repressing the past, any number of things.
It's pointing out "success", to make you feel like a failure. That's the big problem with pro-ana and pro-ed websites.
Just like pro-SH websites, they do have a certain comfort in them, but they are ultimately very damaging.
i don't doubt that that is a contributing factor, but i don't think it's the reason.
healthy people don't starve themselves half to death because they think it'd be a good look. there has to be something a bit wrong in the first place to kick the whole deal off.
True. At the end it is aways censorship and no matter what the content of a website is it should stay online. After if people are stupid enough to be affected in a bad way by the content of a website, well it aint really the website fault.
Yes it fucking well is.
These websites should be shut down. They actively encourage and promote this act, glamourise it and glorify it.
I happen to think it does make a difference. They have no genuine support role, except to glorify the act and make the people feel its normal. It isn't norma behaviour.
It's a mental disorder. Just like self-harming and other things like that.
yeah but who the hell are you to tell me im not allowed to get together with likeminded people who actually WANT to do this? (not that I do anymore)
people give up their EDs when theyre ready, and disbanding a community because you think what theyre doing is bad for them is just controlling.
the ONLY person who can stop someones eating disorder is themselves and when someone is ready they will give up the ED and the web communitys themselves. The pro-ana sites do not give people anorexia.
The problem is that many of these communities ARE targeted at teenaged girls, do discourage recovery, and attack people who recover from their illness. If you dare to try and recover the implication is that you are too weak-willed to continue, and that you are too weak and stupid to remain in control.
That's the problem. They're not innocent websites out to make people feel as part of a community, they are deliberately and directly targeted in such a way as to positively discourage recovery and promote continuing this illness.
I fully appreciate what you're saying, and I do get your point. I just feel that you are wrong. I haven't got the ED experience, but I have got the SH experience, and I have always been completely against the pro-SH websites as well, for the same reason.
I do think ballerina is being very very naive, and completely and totally missing the point behind why people do develop ED.
The site i used to go to, most of the people on it were late teens, early 20s with the odd one older than that. I remember someone came on once who was 13 and everyone just basically saying you shouldnt be doing this, youre too young. strongly discouraging it