Beware of 'pro-ana'

I began the week with an interesting lecture. One of my class’ many associate instructors took the podium to discuss the dangers of anonymous identities on social media, particularly in specialized online forums.

You can find a community for just about everything on the Internet. There are sites for people with unusual sex fetishes, people looking to have an affair and people shopping for the perfect mail-order bride.

My AI talked about communities that encourage eating disorders, namely the pro-ana movement. These websites are dangerous and are negatively affecting

adolescents.
A 2006 study by David Giles showed more than 400 pro-ana websites, “ana” being short for “anorexia.” There is also the pro-mia movement, “mia” being short for “bulimia.”

People with an eating disorder support each other through these communities, which provide tips for starving and purging, and can even maintain a diary of their progress online.

These websites can have a strong influence on adolescent girls. Thirty-five to 57 percent of adolescent girls use some kind of dangerous method to lose weight, such as purging, using laxatives, fasting and crash dieting.

The strong camaraderie of these communities have flipped the way some see eating disorders from a disorder to a lifestyle choice. Anorexia and bulimia are not diseases but positive health decisions people should feel free to make.
I don’t believe eating disorders are lifestyle choices. I think they are disorders, and people with them need help.

People can fall into an eating disorder for a variety of reasons. Some want to lose weight, and some use it as a coping mechanism to gain a sense of control.
In that sense, I believe it is a choice. You choose to starve yourself for days at a time, just like you choose to force yourself to vomit after eating a large meal. But as time passes, I believe those decisions form habits that then become a
disorder.

The dictionary defines a medical disorder as a “physical or mental condition that is not normal or healthy.”  

We must then decide what is “normal” or “healthy.”

I think it’s safe to assume that most of us grew up eating three meals a day, though some, including myself, tend to skip breakfast. Three meals is normal.
WebMD says a moderately active woman between the ages 19 and 30 should eat 2,000 to 2,200 calories a day. A moderately active man between 19 and 30 should eat between 2,600 and 2,800 calories a day. These are normal and healthy standards.

By these standards, a 16-year-old girl eating 400 calories a day is not healthy or normal. But these websites don’t acknowledge that. Instead, they tell the girl to snap herself with a rubber band when she feels hungry and to avoid her friends until she reaches her goal.

These communities encourage not only eating disorders but self-harm and social isolation.

These communities are not healthy. They are causing confusion and multiple unhealthy habits among adolescents.

I understand we all see beauty differently, but no matter how we try to reach the goal, it needs to be done in a healthy manner.
­
lnbanks@indiana.edu
@LexiaBanks