"Pro-ana" ("pro-anorexia") and "pro-mia" ("pro-bulimia") web sites are sites that exist to promote the notion that having an eating disorder is a good thing. People with eating disorders often isolate themselves more and more as their symptoms progress. Yet the desire to be with others remains. Pro-ana sites give a false sense of support to those who don’t want to give up their eating patterns.
Hoping in Vain
Some pro-ana and pro-mia sites provide some accurate information on the dangers of eating disorders. Yet the data is used to encourage readers to learn new ways to engage in poor eating patterns in an attempt to avoid such dangers.
The mixed messages these sites send make recovery very hard. Anxiety often fuels eating disorders, and the raw information readers see on these sites can serve to soothe that anxiety (especially when it matches information they see on legitimate sites). Worse, tips on how to lose drastic amounts of weight or how to hide purging make these behaviors seem OK. This calms anxiety even further, giving the reader a double shot of comfort.
When the eating disorder behaviors deepen and the resulting pain arrives, the need for stress relief rises again. The negative web site "worked" before, so the reader goes back to get another dose. It is a dangerous spiral.
More False Comfort
Two people can experience intimacy in many ways, both good and bad. While romantic love builds one kind of intimacy, going through trauma with someone builds another kind. Negative eating disorder sites promote the latter. A pro-recovery site in which readers rely on each other for support on the road to health creates a shared experience around recovery. A negative site creates a shared experience around the disorder. Both sites make the reader feel less alone, but only one leads to freedom.
The side effect is that face-to-face intimacy doesn’t seem important anymore. In fact, for the body-conscious, it will likely seem even more frightening. Negative sites feed on this. Readers of these sites are used to feeling shame; the pain feels normal and comfortable. The standard of thinness these sites promote guarantees that readers will feel inadequate and will avoid friends and family. But they will turn back to their companions on the negative sites for more tips.
An Alternative
A difficult issue for many people who seek treatment for eating disorders is that they must deal with people who genuinely care about them. Feeling comfort without shame is new to them, and it is hard to trust. Yet this is precisely the kind of support that aids in recovery -- it shows that comfort and pain do not have to be fused together.
A therapist can provide a sense of real support and intimacy. Therapy groups, support groups, and twelve-step groups increase this effect. At some point in recovery, family therapy can help to heal old wounds.
Conclusion
Sites that promote disordered eating promise community and comfort, but they create deeper isolation and more disordered eating. Those with disordered eating can receive genuine intimacy in face-to-face contact with others who truly care about their recovery.
Back to What Causes Eating Disorders
Source:
Something Fishy, 2006. "WWW.Warning--Negative Internet Sites." Accessed 8 October 2006.
