Show and Tell

http://www.prettythin.com/

In Monday's class we talked a lot about anorexia and bulimia and what those eating disorders entailed in further detail. One of the things Liz Fletcher-Brown talked about also was the existance of "pro-ana" websites. I had neve in my life heard of anything like this at all, and to be honest was shocked that they even existed. With that being said, I became curious to see what these "pro-ana" sites were all about. I expected them to be a bunch of anorexic/bulimic people talking irrationally about how great their "situation" is and how they didn't find it to be disorderly at all, in all honesty. Instead I stumbled upon the Pretty Thin site linked above.

Right off the back it was nothing like I expected. The holder of the site isn't even anorexic/bulimic. Just an average person. His/her friend was the original creator of the site and was actually anorexic herself. She/he decided to take the site over when his/her friend no longer wanted to keep it up. Originally the site was more of a journal for the original owner, but once it was taken over by the current holder it became sort of a live stream for any and everyone that wanted to join. Many of the post consist of everyday struggles and peoples different ways of dealing with them. It's kind of sad to read some of the posts because it seems that some of the people posting take little incidents and do sort of extreme things to help cope with them. Not all or like that, but I definitely saw a few.

I feel like overall this website is a very good way of helping people with eating disorders feel not so alone. The author mentioned in the introductory text that the site was in no way meant to "cure" anyone, but only to help them with what they're going through. Although there are people out there who truly believe that having an eating disorder is totally normal and that there is nothing wrong with their behavior, I also believe that there are people out there that sincerely feel trapped and don't know what else to do. I've never personally had any issues like eating disorders or anything, but I do know what it feels like to feel trapped and just desperately want to be in control of something. My ways of copeing with that feeling were a little less extreme however. I liked eating so that wasn't something I would give up, but I'd do reckless things (not necessarily bad) just things I knew I wasn't supposed to do. I'd purposefulyy defy my parents and I liked it.

I feel like in order for someone to change it needs to be done on their own terms, even if that means never changing at all. It's sad to see people we care about go through not only eating disorders, but anything equally as bad/upsetting. If they're not willing to change than they should at least have outlets such as Pretty Thin to help them with whatever their going through and deal with it in what they feel is the best way possible.