Increasing Pro-Ana Movement – Words Supporting Suicide
@ Kim Dennis, M.D., Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center
August 15, 2010
We’ve all heard the phrase, “sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you!” It was a favorite of parents trying to support their children in detaching from what bullies and other spiritually sick kids said. Although it might have been good enough to use with school yard bullies, it’s proving to take a lot more to help people sick with eating disorders detach from an online movement where words are used to encourage starvation, binging and purging – which amount to gradual suicide.
With the increase in internet usage has come the age of social media and websites that encourage involvement in online “social” networks. One such forum uses the web to proliferate messages of anorexia and bulimia, and supports those suffering from these deadly diseases to connect with the primary purpose of promoting their symptoms. Pro-ana websites have become a huge source of inspiration for people sick with subclinical or full-blown anorexia nervosa, encouraging them to continue down their path of anorexia (or bulimia – in which case they’re called pro-mia websites).
The pro-ana movement promotes anorexia nervosa as a lifestyle choice rather than a deadly, killing disease over which the sufferer is powerless, and the same for pro-mia referring to bulimia. The creators and participants on these websites tout their symptoms as positive lifestyle choices, and that these sites are places for members to come together to share experience, strength and hope with living in the disease, or rather, “lifestyle.” They use words and “thinspiration,” commonly in the form of images or videos of slim women shared on websites, to feed girls’, boys’, and adults’ beliefs that thinner equals better, happier, and more successful. These websites commonly provide advice on how to hide signs of eating disorders from loved ones and healthcare providers, as well as how to lose and keep off weight. They also talk about methods and offer tips about how to purge and starve more effectively.
I’ve treated many women and girls in my work at Timberline Knolls who become obsessed with these sites while they are active in their eating disorders, and have a very difficult time letting go of them during and after treatment. It is a serious and growing problem facing teens and young adults today. Most of our anorexic and bulimic patients, including adolescents, young adults and older women, have been involved in pro-ana or pro-mia websites – and used them as a source of support on their journeys of self destruction and suicide in their eating disorders. Some patients have created their own blogs about how to be more effective in their eating disorders, and others use MySpace and Facebook accounts to document their diseases with words, video clips and pictures. It’s clear to me from my clinical experience that in essence, these sites promote suicide – and that is something that needs to be addressed. While Facebook and other websites do have policies to take these postings down, such policies are extremely difficult to effectively and consistently execute. Further, there are many web hosting services that have no such policies and take no stance one way or another – even though these words and images are promoting a death path to susceptible young girls and women.
A study done by the American Journal of Public Health looked at 180 pro-ana and pro-mia websites and found 83 percent of them offered advice to readers on both how to start having an eating disorder and/or how to continue on the path of starvation, binging and purging. Because of the proliferation of these sites, we have to work to intervene on this front, and support the members to use their natural instincts to connect with others in a different way – in the service of their recoveries rather than their diseases. We do this in treatment; we do this in face-to-face 12 step meetings, and also with a lesser degree of connectedness in online 12 step meetings and recovery forums.
Because there are always underlying self-esteem issues with girls who suffer from anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders, these websites can offer them something they might never have had before – feeling included and part of a community. What they may not realize is there are other communities that will help foster life and abundance; communities available to help those suffering from anorexia and bulimia find lifelong recovery. These connect sufferers with other people in recovery or working to recover from their diseases, and share stories of experience, strength and hope with working the steps of recovery on a daily basis. Banding together with others can be a great source of hope and inspiration, a higher power of sorts that enables those suffering to see recovery is possible and achievable for even the sickest among us.
Kimberly Dennis, MD, is the medical director at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center. Located in Lemont, Ill., TK is designed exclusively for women and adolescent girls with emotional disorders, including eating disorders, addiction, mood disorders and other co-occurring disorders. Dr. Dennis is a member of the Academy of Eating Disorders, the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
