Pro ana, what IS it? A lifestyle choice? a failure to recognise an illness? A diet? I think to some extent it's all 3. A very bad combination in my opinion. It encourages extreme diets for a start.
What's wrong with an extreme diet? Well, when you embark on one of these, a chemical reaction starts to happen in the brain. Being hungry becomes pleasurable, you feel like you don't need to eat, food even becomes unpleasant to you. Why? Because your body thinks there is a famine and so tries to protect you by switching off your hunger mechanism. Great, you may think?
Wrong. Your body is now in starvation mode. Anything which passes your lips is instantly stored as fat. Your metabolism has slowed right down. Some of your organs are slowing down too. All this means that weight loss is very difficult, and long term weight loss impossible.
So. You've stumbled across the term pro ana, you need to lose a few pounds, and now your in starvation mode. What does pro ana encourage next?
Self loathing. It tells you that you are weak. Useless. Need to work harder. Of course it works, thats why anorexics are thin. You must not be eating little enough. Cut back more. Greedy cow.
It introduces you to the dreaded thinspiration. All those tiny women, they can't eat much, I'd love to look like them. Must try harder.
Great, so pro ana gives us:
- the idea that an anorexic lifestyle can be used as a diet
- Feelings of inadequacy when we don't lose weight fast enough
- a sense of failure and therefore a dented self esteem which can start a "restrict" cycle
What a wonderful thing. And this stuff is available to insecure teenagers who think they need to look like Miley Cyrus to be popular?
And don't get me started on the ignorance around genuine EDs it inspires. That is a topic for another day.
love,
Bella xx
Remember to visit www.anabites.webs.com for some common sense advice and support for EDs of all kinds.
No comments:
Post a Comment