Why recovery rocks....

RECOVERY.

A scary word, right? Food, weight gain, loss of control.

Well, yes, it IS scary. But the best things in life often are.

Here are some reasons why you should take a step towards recovery TODAY!

1. So you can see friends and not stress about them asking you to eat
2. To feel HEALTHY
3. So you can learn to love your body for what it does for you
4. So you can, ultimately, be happy

Why do you want to recover? Even if you're not sure you really do.... Think of an answer anyway :)

"I'm Ana this week, I need to lose a few lbs"

Ahhh, a serious pet hate of mine, and an opportunity to ramble away to my heart's content :)

"Ana is a lifestyle choice, not a disease."

I shall start my dissection of this rather lovely statement with some statistics:

• Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness
• A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover
• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.
• 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems

Read more: http://weighingthefacts.blogspot.com/2008/03/eating-disorder-courage.html#ixzz19zP3I7pR

Wow. Some lifestyle choice.

There are two things in particular which drive me to screaming point about this.

1. Impressionable or just stupid people believing that "ana" is a diet. They think they can eat 500 calories a day for a week and that means they have an eating disorder.

2. Part of having an ED is the belief that you're fine, actually. Encouraging this through the pro ana movement is dangerous. Simple as. It normalises the abnormal for goodness sake!

If you are a member of the pro ana movement, I beg you to think very carefully about WHY. 

Is it because you get support? Well I'm sorry but pro ana does not give you sensible or healthy support. It encourages you to avoid treatment. join plentyoffish.org or anabites.webs.com for sensible support

Is it because you need to lose weight? Well then you are misguided, join minimins for healthy weight loss support.

Is it because you don't want to get well? Take another look at those stats at the beginning. Really? THAT is what you want? It may be what ED wants, but that is not you. Not really.

The problem with pro ana

In order to publicise my website, I've been visiting a lot of pro ana sites. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not naive, I know what they involve - I used to be a member of several - However the constant contact with this sort of material has got me thinking.

 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:

1. the idea that an anorexic lifestyle can be used as a diet
2. Feelings of inadequacy when we don't lose weight fast enough
3. a sense of failure and therefore a dented self esteem which can start a "restrict" cycle

Messed up metabolism meaning you feel trapped into continuing the crash diet to maintain any weight loss.

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.

just some ponderings

I'm not sure what I'm going to type today - lets just see where I go with this lol...

We had Chinese take away last night. I ate vegetable chow mein and chicken with mushrooms. It felt like the safest option but I still felt the need to carefully monitor my portion size and I still made sure I ate fruit and yogurt for breakfast to make up for it. I guess that's something to get used to after an ED - it's not always as easy as you can make it look.

   Today, we are enjoying a lazy film day. So far we watched "Enchanted" (Except I kept getting distracted by Gisselle's skinny frame. She is TINY.) Then we watched Bee movie and Wall E. Lol a proper kids movie day :)

It's  nice though, just chilling. I should make myself do it more often.

Peace and Love,
Bella xxx

happy 2011!

his year has flown by! I can't believe how far I've come :)

Anyway, a new year is a good time to make a new start - but be careful of trying to change too much in one go! If you decide to recover, give up smoking and learn to drive all at once, you may well end up failing.

For me, my resolution is keep thinking and acting positively during 2011. Sometimes that in its self can be hard enough.

What's your resolution? is it realistic? achievable?

Here's to a happy, HEALTHY new year to everyone who reads this or visits www.anabites.webs.com

Love and peace,
Bella xx

my website!

I have started a sort of recovery website / not triggering website.

Please, come  join us. It's small, but I hope it will be very supportive and welcoming :)

http://anabites.webs.com/

for prettythin

Dear James,

    I doubt very much that I will get a response from you. I never have before, and I am about to perform a massive U turn with my opinion of this site.

   I am in a position where I have used PT both through my ED and during my recovery. I can now, with insight and a clear head say that PT certainly made my ED worse.

  Now, from this, I would suggest that PT encourages ED's. Which, in turn would make it "pro ana".

  I spent a huge amount of time in the forums, and despite the no tip rule, there are diets, messages of "support" (Basically saying "Keep strong, Don't eat") and very unwell people searching fro a little attention.

  This is a cocktail for "creepers" as you call them.

I have to say, that I attended some safeguarding training for my job. Prettythin was discussed. Yes, PT was flashed on a screen and described as "a massive concern."

Why? Because it attracts paedophiles and encourages starvation. No matter what your disclaimer says.

  I need to say this: Young women suffering from an ed are not in a place where they can make good judgements. I know, I've been there.

An ED makes us want to believe what we see. PT feels sake as well, making it even harder to see that someone may be a 40 year old man. Many members give out facebook details, phone numbers, even on occasion addresses

What people seem to be horribly naive of is that the point of being groomed is that YOU DON'T REALISE. Do you know how easy it is to find out what school someone attends? Use facebook or PT to see what they look like?

Add to this the fact that many many members just want to feel worth something, and it is a recipe for disaster. "Creepers" Know what to look for. They search for vulnerabilities and exploit them.

It horrifies me that when I have brought this up on PT, I have been met with responses such as "Oh, I know I'm not talking to Paedos." or "I only give my phone number to people  I've got to know,"

There is a terrifying lack of awareness on here, and I feel you have a responsibility to do something about that.

You are quite simply not doing enough. PT needs an age restriction, needs moderators online 24/7. Needs an instant "panic button"

Above all else, PT members need it drummed into them that This place is quite simply NOT SAFE. Remember that it is well known enough to be topic for conversation at a safeguarding course.

You know, I'm going to post this on the forums too. as I doubt you will even aknowledge it.

Yours,

Bella