Trigger Warning: This article discusses eating disorders and the mental illnesses that often correlate with them. The purpose of this article is to make people aware of these dangerous online communities; reading is not recommended if you feel you would potentially use this as a source to seek out these websites.
The internet has several thriving communities of eating disorder sufferers who embrace their illness as a lifestyle and encourage others to resist recovery. These communities have exclusive web pages, but can also be found under hidden hashtags on popular outlets such as Tumblr and Instagram. Their goal is to motivate one another to starve and purge, and associate eating with “giving up” and “weakness”. These bloggers have an unhealthy connection with their eating disorders, referring to them as if they were friends or teachers, and often using the pseudonyms Ana (anorexia nervosa) and Mia (bulimia nervosa). By personifying their mental illnesses, they are normalizing their behaviors, and often worshiping them in a similar fashion one would praise a celebrity.
These sites and tags call themselves “pro-ana” and “pro-mia,” and glamorize the effects of eating disorders. While social mediums has attempted to remove these pages on several occasions, the community will create easily accessible new tags, loop holes, and secretive pages to continue promoting their behaviors. While documentaries and articles have been produced to attempt to cause awareness of these harmful sites, thousands continue to go unnoticed by the media and the outlets that provide their platforms. They share tips on how to fast, hide purging, induce vomiting, “become anorexic”, skip meals, fake weight gain in recovery facilities, and trick people into believing you are healthy. They try to inspire one another by posting pictures of sickly thin girls, who are likely facing serious health complicatons, as “thinspiration” and by providing diet plans with dangerously low calorie intake. They often are cruel towards one another, shaming anyone who has broke a fast, posting pictures of their bodies and asking for them to be criticized as further motivation, and trying to promote anorexic behaviors as a solution to a lack of control or meaning in one’s life.
These pages are alarmingly easy to stumble across, and are often responsible for the development of eating disorders or resistance of recovery in mentally ill people. It gives sufferers a sense of accomplishment and belonging, which for some can be much more appealing than weight gain and recovery. Disordered eating behaviors are often used as a coping mechanism for those dealing with mental illness, low self-esteem, and perfectionism. When people at risk of developing eating disorders are exposed to this harmful material, it can implement dangerous ideologies that can enable the start, continuation, or relapse of their eating disorders.
The people who run these pages believe eating disorders are a lifestyle choice and insist the destructive behavior is a commendable way of gaining “self-control.” The goal of many of these pages is to purposefully trigger oneself and others in order to prevent eating, and they are very successful in doing so. These communities are constantly expanding and recruiting new members. Even sufferers who do not have accounts within the community have easy access to their posts and harmful tips. If you come across one of these pages, do not hesitate to report it to the site provider (Tumblr, Instagram, Blogspot, etc.). These sites also have a responsibility to implement measures that will prevent the spreading of these pages, and various reports will hopefully allow them to recognize the pages they are providing. It is also a good idea to monitor sufferers internet use and the pages they visit. If you are one to easily be triggered by this material, perhaps take a break from a social medium that provides easy access (I highly discourage Tumblr in this case).
For advice on eating disorder prevention and treatment:
- National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA)
- Eating Disorder Hope
- NEDA Helpline at 1-800-931-2237
