Joining the Pro-ANA Debate
I'm starting to read some of the Pro-ANA (pro-anorexia) sites out there, and trying to figure out what the movement is really about. Of course, I'm fascinated by the physiology of undereating, as well as the psychology behind the desire to "perfect" one's body.
The whole pro-ANA environment is controversial, and I'm just going to add fuel to the fire. From what I can tell, these pro-ana girls just don't know how to lose weight effectively. There, I've said it. Maybe I'm referring to the subclass of overweight pro-ana girls. They're out there, exchanging tips on how to undereat, and other ways they consider starving themselves. (E.g., one girl's 2-4-6-8 plan, which provides meal plans with 200, 400, 600, and 800 calories per day.)
BTW, I posted on one pro-ana site, and asked if I had an ED, since I'm into weighing every gram I eat, and working out as much as possible. But, I seem to be instantly kicked out of the club because I'm eating about 1900-2000 calories a day. They consider what I'm doing to be healthy. Ok, I agree with them on that, but my point is: if I'm losing weight, and obsess over food and exercise, and they don't lose the weight they want, then who's the real anorexic? And I'm pretty sure I'm not talking to the pro-mia (pro-bulemia) girls.
Of course, I'm trying to switch them over to my way of thinking. Has anyone tried to convince an pro-ana girl how to lose weight correctly? I bet the knee-jerk reaction to is tell them not to diet, not to worry about weight, etc. Which is the absolutely wrong tack. (It's like Gambler's Anonymous. The correct way to treat many of these people is simply to teach them how to gamble better, and to avoid house games.) All of us want to be thin, especially young girls. If you tell them to eat, they're going to defy you and try to starve/harm themselves. But if you teach them extreme nutrition, they'll probably benefit.
I'll see what the scoop is. I'm sure it's been brought up before. Should be interesting.
posted by stephenhow @ 4:30 PM
8 Comments:
You really have *no* idea what being anorexic is about. It's not only the weight obsession, dieting is merely one of the symptoms.
Ok, I believe you. I can probably learn to appreciate the anorexic point-of-view, but I'd never understand it. It's probably best that I leave it alone.
I hope that you never do 'understand' it. This really isn't a nice place to be.
Im in the 140 and over community, and I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I eat around 1500 cals a day, but I dont like to say it on there because that seems too 'extreme" for them.... I cant fast, I dont think I ever could.
I couldn't fast either. To me, eating only 3 times a day is fasting. I know the exteme restriction and fasting is aimed at immediate results, but I don't think it works. If it did work, I'd do it, believe me. Sure, you can starve yourself to a skeleton, then death (it's been proved in the camps), but that's not my goal. Sure, I know some people don't feel worthy, and want to harm themselves, and all anorexics have this to a certain point. I have low self-esteem, but losing weight really helps improve it.
I'm in the 140_and_over community as well. Part of what you can't understand is that a lot of the girls in there know that what they're doing is less effective than it could be. But for one reason or another, the mental torment of the eating disorder prevents them/me from being able to eat enough food to be able to do it the "healthy" way. When you have to fight intense terror and shame in order to allow yourself to eat a single baby carrot, it's an impossible task to have to face eating 2,000 calories in a single day. Its irrational, but no-one ever said that mental illness was rational. For myself, I get caught in a trap between eating nothing to satisfy my internal horror at making myself fat, and making it look like I'm eating normally to avoid my husband knowing that anything is wrong. The result is a diet of about 400 calories a day, all eaten with him at dinner. It's unhealthy to have all the calories for a whole day at one sitting, and it's probably playing havoc with my metabolism. But it's keeping me vaguely functioning, and my weight is dropping at a rate of 3-5kg per month, and my bmi has dropped from 45 to 27 in eighteen months. (Yes, I was morbidly obese. There's no insult you could give me about it that I don't already scream at myself every second of the day, so don't bother). I could probably lose faster if I ate more, but losing any faster than I already am would alert my doctor that something is up. She's already suspicious that I'm losing weight whilst claiming not to notice anything.
I can understand the part about being trapped by shame (and pride). They are huge motivators that have affected my life.
Anyway, congrats on your weightloss. I'm not trying to change your views. I do like hearing from you though.
I've been looking into this too, and it seems to me that there are 2 distinct types of pro-ana types there's the "I have an eating disorder that might kill me, and i hate it but i'll never admit it because i want to keep my illness happy" pro-ana types (ie the ones who are actually properly anorexic) and then there is the "I want to be skinny as hell and by god i will be, and damn you all for judging me on my lifestyle-choice" pro-ana. Now, I tend to think that this 2nd lot have an absolutely 100% justifiable argument, but the problem is that by identifying themselves as ana they're immediately inviting condemnation and misunderstanding... And of course, pro-ana sites aren't just used by one of these groups, but by both, which just adds to the general confusion of the matter. From what i can tell, it seems to be the proper-illness anorexics who go for the not-eating-at-all approach, and the others for more of a restriction approach (which is sensible really as these ones don't actually want to die!)
Ok, enough rambling on yr blog...
DCH
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