The pro-ana movement is the acronym for prο-anorexia, and it is important to note that there are a plethora of blogs, websites and forums where people suffering from anorexia, bulimia or other eating disorders and talk to one another and exchange views. They support anorexia and bulimia as they are not perceived as eating disorders, but simply as some eating habits.
In general, we find that there is no legal framework that prohibits anyone who wants to create a pro - ana website and even advertises it in various ways to attract as many visitors as possible. That is, we should make it clear that there is no formal or informal body, nor organization, since anyone can create a pro-ana blog freely. But these blogs and other social media sites can also contribute to anorexia nervosa, as people who engage in discussions often praise weight loss and somehow promote very thin bodies as role models, rather than healthy bodies with normal mass and muscle to fat ratio. The majority of these sites are flooded with photos of incredibly thin bodies making some of the visitors of these web pages feel overweight even though they are of normal weight and normal health. Also, this projection of extremely thin bodies and their admiration, leads some to think that they too must lose enough weight for others to admire them and become more beloved or famous!
Pro Ana is a lifestyle promoted via the internet, and it builds a virtual reality but also false beauty standards, as it aims to promote the idea and the view that the goal of all people should be to achieve a very low weight. In essence, pro-ana takes on the characteristics of a movement or a religion, as it rejects the scientific knowledge derived from the science of medicine, creating a new identity for visitors and members who take refuge on these sites, preferring to live in a virtual reality.
Some thoughts concerning this movement
The pro-ana movement as we can see is in stark contrast to the medically sound advice as well as the psychological treatment and support that people suffering from anorexia and bulimia should receive, especially for anorexia which may have very unpleasant effects on the general and psychological health of the individual which could even lead to death. So, these are not just simple disorders, but very serious disorders that one should not play with and people suffering from them should only turn to specialists such as nutritionists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Instead, we find that all of these sites look like a support community for those girls who are experiencing these eating disorders and who feel isolated and lonely, looking for ways to help but failing to do so. In fact, in order to make these disorders sound more attractive and less threatening, the people who handle these blogs and sites call anorexia and bulimia by human names as if they were humans, that is, they try to humanize these disorders, thus deconstructing and altering - distorting their characteristics and the truth around these disorders. We would say that this is a new fashion, a new trend of the time where emphasis is placed on the image of the individual, rewarding the supposed perfection of the very lean body.
Why would a girl choose Pro-Ana?
The site provides tips on how a person suffering from anorexia or bulimia could suppress the feeling of hunger. Ways are also suggested for how a person could hide for example their vomiting or some other practices that are routine for these people. All these blogs, websites and especially with the rapid development of social media, their information is transmitted in an incredibly fast way and to a very large number of people. Of course, there is no scrutiny for scientific sources, nor is the official scientific point of view presented anywhere, not even some nuggets of scientific controversy from the medical community. Of course, just by the names of these sites, one can easily understand what they are about and what their purposes are. Examples of such names are: "Hunger for Perfection", "2b-Thin" and "Anorexic Nation".
The proliferation of pro-ana websites would be said to reflect a symptom of the eating disorder itself as people suffering from anorexia and bulimia usually still visit these websites even though they cannot be helped. Perhaps the feeling of belonging to a community is stronger than the courage to stop lying to themselves and confronting the truth. It is outrageous that two such serious disorders are treated as a lifestyle, and therefore as a choice.
Sources:
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/anorexia-treatment/pro-ana#dangers-of-pro-ana-sites
Kouravanas Nicholas & Papadopoulou Eleni, Psychologists, MSc.
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